Revenant
by Zimprus Nalune
Summary: In the Everfree Forest, a changeling wakes up with no memories, not even a name. With nothing behind him, and a seemingly endless forest in front, he sets out to make his way in Equestria.
1. Awakening

A sudden, sharp pain ripped me from unconsciousness. I let out a yelp as I scrambled to get up, holding the top of my throbbing head. The sound of a cawing crow burst through the air, and I opened my eyes to look for the bird.

The noisy creature happened to be standing directly in front of me, looking at me with a cocked head. I hissed in both pain and anger, which scared the bird into flying off, leaving me alone.

_Damn bird._

I stumbled, whatever balance I had now gone, and fell to the ground. I let out another hiss and looked around me, the trees and bushes of a forest filling my view. As the throbbing of my head faded, I used my now-free limbs to push myself off the forest floor, shaking my head quickly as I observed my front legs.

They were filled with holes and gaps, some looking like I had a chunk taken out of my leg, but a few went straight through, making it look as if I had cheese or sponges for legs. The bottoms of my legs were completely flat as well, pressed fully against the ground.

_What the heck is going on?_

I shifted into a sitting position, trying to get a look at my back legs, which turned out to be just as hole-ridden as my front ones. I unsteadily stood up on all fours and looked around myself once more, trying to find something I could at myself in. For some reason, my appearance was bugging me…

I turned around a found a small, crystal clear pond directly behind me. I leaned over the edge, careful not to lose my balance again. What I saw looking back at me almost immediately caused me to do so.

Two red, pupil-less eyes, white fangs, wisp-like ears, a curved horn were all placed on a matte black head with a short snout. Also, I could faintly make out some kind of short, grey mane sticking out from the back of my head. I let out an involuntary gasp, the reflection the pond copying my motions perfectly.

I slowly stepped away from the pond, my thoughts in a whirl. I turned my head as far as I could to look at myself.  
Almost my entire body was covered in a carapace as black as my head, the exception being a slightly shiny section on my back that faded from black to blue near my flanks. On top of that section rested two nearly transparent, light blue wings, which fluttered at a thought. A twitch brought into sight a short, grey tail, the same color as my mane.

_What am I?_

I turned my attention from my body to the forest around me. Trees stretched upwards and blotted out the sky, only a few rays of sunlight making it through to the ground. Despite that, the bushes and foliage on the ground seemed to be alive and healthy. Looking down, the ground was blackened and sooty, except for a small, me-shaped spot…

_Changeling…_

A whispery, female voice rang through my head, startling me. I crouched low to the ground, growling as a green light shone from above me and I became aware of a strange feeling in my horn. I scanned the area in front of me, searching for the source of the voice.

"Who's there!?" I shouted, looking behind me. "Come out!"

I stood for a moment, only letting my guard down after I was sure that there was nothing that could have said whatever it was that I heard. I looked up to see what it was that was making the green glow, but the light always stayed just above my vision. I shook my head, thinking the glow was something that had stuck to me, but it didn't go away.

Frustrated, I looked back to the pond and jumped slightly when I saw that my horn was surrounded by a green aura. I shook my head again, but the aura stayed wrapped around my horn. I then tried sticking my head in the water, but that didn't work either.

_Great… now how do I get rid of this green stuff and stop looking like a light…thingy…_ I winced and rubbed my head as a sharp but brief stab of pain accompanied the end of my thought.

I sat down and frowned, trying to remember what that strange voice had said. The voice seemed oddly familiar, but for the moment I ignored that.

'Changeling' was what I thought it said. I closed my eyes. 'Changeling'… the definition was on the tip of my tongue. A dull throbbing started in my head, but I ignored it.

Suddenly, a feeling of light-headedness came over me, and I fell over. Images flashed through my mind. I saw creatures that looked almost exactly like me, but grayer and with blue eyes. Images of the 'changelings' doing all sorts of things, from flying to fighting. Then, as quickly as they came, the images faded away.

_Changelings are insect-like creatures capable of flight and magic. They can change their form to mimic almost anything and feed off of the love and positive emotions of ponies._

The thoughts fly through my head before I know I'm thinking them. I blink in surprise. Where did all of that come from? And more importantly, what was the deal with magic and poni-

Another stab of pain erupts in my head, followed quickly by another bout of light-headedness. More images of colorful changel-no, they're not changelings… they ponies.

_Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns._

I sit up and rub my head with a… hoof?

_Hoof… that's it. Changelings have hooves, and so do ponies._

I slowly stand up, thoughts of the three kinds of ponies still lingering in my head. I shook my head to clear them away before noticing the green glow that was still at the top of my vision.

By some instinct that wasn't there before, I willed the magic I had reflexively gathered out of my horn and back into my body, the strange feeling fading with it. I smiled. Now, for whatever reason, I could control my magic.

I became abruptly aware that I had no idea where I was. Unlike before, there was no random set of images and thoughts, which confused me, but I decided to think about that later. I looked around once more, spying a faintly visible trail leading away from the clearing I was in.

I took a few tentative steps towards the trail, but I quickly settled into a somewhat fast walk once I found that it came easier than controlling magic had. I looked back at the blackened clearing for a brief moment before turning my attention to the forest in front of me.

It was actually very quiet and peaceful, only a few birds flitting from tree to tree. Unlike the clearing, the path I was on was littered with leaves and twigs, which crunched and snapped softly under my hooves. For some reason, it struck me as odd that I could hardly feel them, but that was likely due to my carapace.

Glancing off to my side, I saw an orange fox running through the forest, chasing after a small grey spot that I couldn't quite make out. It was obviously in pursuit of some prey… like I would have to be, before too long. I knew I was a changeling, and changelings fed off positive emotions, but I didn't know how long I had before I needed to do so.

_First things first though… get out of this forest._

The next thing I knew, I as being hoisted up into the air upside-down. The world spun for a moment before I looked at my back leg and realized I had stepped into a classic rope trap. I frowned and sighed. I had no idea how to get out of…

_Wait… I have magic! I can just blast my way out of this!_

I willed a good amount of magic into my horn, instincts allowing me to and telling me how much was enough, just as they had allowed me to dissipate it before. With a mental push, the green aura around my horn formed into a bolt that flew directly into the rope, snapping it instantly. I grinned briefly before I realized I had nothing holding me up anymore.

**WHUMP!**

I groaned as I slowly sat up, rubbing the back of my head, which was the first part of me to impact the ground. After the headache faded slightly, I stood up and looked at my back, buzzing my wings a bit to make sure they were fine.

_Wait…wings…_

I let out a huge groan and facehoofed. Forgetting I had wings was an idiotic move. I made a mental note to not forget again.

I started walking once more, this time paying closer attention to the ground in front of me so I didn't step in any more traps. I didn't go much farther until the 'path' I had been on vanished entirely, just short of another, much larger and obviously well-traveled path.

Unsure of which way to go, I stood still for a short while before deciding that standing around wasn't getting anything done. I picked left and started walking once more.

Left had apparently been the right choice, as there was another clearing not too far away. Intrested to find out if there was anything there, however unlikely, I switched to a trot and quickly reached the edge of the clearing.

It was rather large compared to the one I had woken up in, large enough so that there was a good-sized hole in the tree cover that allowed light to shine down on a cluster of rocks in the center of the clearing. There were actually a lot of large rocks scattered around, a few looked like they had been carved at one point, but most were little more than heaps.

There was a sudden rustling noise behind me, followed by a low buzzing. I ducked just as an amber bolt of magic sailed over my head and impacted on one of the large rocks, blasting a small chunk away. I jumped back to my hooves and whirled around, prepping my own magic and growling as a unicorn walked out from a bush.

Her coat was a light tan, her mane and tail were black with a golden streak running through them. Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked at me, charging another bolt of magic.

I crouched in preparation for her attack. "You shouldn't have done that," I hissed. The mare frowned scornfully.

"I only regret missing," she responded, before lowering her head and firing at me again. I leapt out the way and shot my own bolt at her, but she managed to jump over it. It served as a distraction, though, and I used the time to take off, running around a few boulders and heading back into the forest, the unicorn in hot pursuit.

I leapt over a bush, taking off through the many trees. I spared a glance behind me to see the bush explode in an amber flash, the unicorn having simply blasted it out of her way. A veritable barrage of magical blasts were sent after me even as she chased me herself.

I began zigzagging in between the trees, the bolts either hitting them or missing everything and sailing past me with a pretty large margin. Despite the zigzagging slowing me down, the occasional looking backwards let me know I was actually losing the mare. She was simply charging towards me in the straightest possible line, but it didn't matter. Despite their cheese-like appearance, the holes in the legs of a changeling acted like springs, which gave me way more leg power than a unicorn or pegasus, maybe even an earth pony.

I blinked. I didn't know I knew that.

_Must have been the same deal as that headache from earlier…_

I was so caught up in my thoughts, I was only shocked back to reality when I suddenly couldn't feel the ground underneath my hooves anymore. I looked down to see I had run straight over a rather large cliff.

"Crap," I muttered, as I then started falling, gravity coming to the same realization I had.

It was actually a good ways down, so I was falling for a couple of seconds before I remembered I had wings. They promptly buzzed to life, and I laughed.

"Screw gravity, I have wings!" I cackled, flying above the cliff I had fallen off of and waiting for the unicorn that had been chasing me.

The mare burst out of the forest and ground to a halt well before she went over the cliff. She looked this way and that, magic prepped and ready to blast any changeling she could find. The buzzing of my wings must have caught her ear, as she stiffened right before looking up at me. I couldn't resist blowing an enormous raspberry at her, laughing as she reddened indignantly.

I darted to the right as she shot a bolt of magic at me, smiling smugly as she fumed. "Come down here!" she shouted. I shook my head and stuck out my tongue. She ground her teeth together and stomped on the ground. "When I get my hooves on you!"

I chuckled and flew down towards her, buzzing over another bolt of magic before getting close enough to flick her horn, disrupting the aura that surrounded it and making the unicorn yelp and fall to the ground, trying to cover her horn with her hooves.

I laughed and drifted around her in circles, poking at her and enjoying how she rolled around on the ground to avoid.

Then out of nowhere, one of her hooves came away from her and punched me straight in the snout.

I let out a half-yell, half-yelp, clutching my face and cursing. Then an amber flash filled my vision as I felt the wind driven out of me. My wings froze in place and I fell to the ground, growling lowly.

I took a deep breath and rolled off the side I had landed on, jumping back to my hooves as an amber bolt struck the ground where I had just been.

I looked at the unicorn, now seriously angered. I willed a large of magic into my horn, feeling slightly drained but determined to, at the very least, knock this unicorn out for a good while. She apparently had the same idea, as her horn lit up brighter than it had been before, a double aura of amber surrounding her horn.

We locked eyes, and fired.

Instead of bolts like before, we both let off beams of magic. Hers was a column of amber flame, and mine was a blast of green lightning. The torrents of magic collided between us, raging against each other in an attempt to blow their targets away. I began feeling more and more drained as the contest went on.

I felt a slight numbness creeping into my body, likely a sign that I was running out of energy to spare. I couldn't keep up the blast for much longer.

_I need to end this, and fast…_

Suddenly, an image of a changeling popped into my head. I smiled, now knowing what to do.

I crouched as low as I could while keeping my attack focused on the unicorn. Cutting the attack off, I leapt into the air, using my wings to carry me higher and higher until the mare looked like a tiny filly. Her blast passed underneath me, clearing a new path into the forest as it blew away the trunks of a number of trees and annihilated bushes.

Once I had climbed high enough into the air, I didn't even pause to catch my breath before I turned back around and dove straight towards the mare. I let off a spark of magic, and the air around me caught fire, turning me into a living projectile.

I could see the unicorn strangely clearly through the flames. She looked like she was catching her breath, too tired to get out of the way. She looked up at me and started scrambling to get away, but I easily angled myself towards her. I closed my eyes as I neared the ground, expecting some pain on impact.

The unicorn's yell pierced the air as I hit the ground, causing a small explosion that threw her away. I didn't feel any pain, and I realized that I was standing in a small crater, a small throb in my head the only symptom from crashing into the ground.

I jumped out of the crater and walked over to the unicorn, who appeared to be unconscious. I leaned over her, grinning. "Told you you shouldn't have done that." I whispered. Then a hoof connected with my snout.

"Would you stop punching me!" I yelled, holding the end of my snout as the mare struggled to her hooves. I exhaled sharply, making sure I was okay before turning back to the unicorn.

She had managed to stand back up, but immediately fell the moment she tried to take a step. By this point, I was sick and tired of her. I lunged at her, knocking her onto her back and hissed in her face, fangs borne.

"Wait!" she yelled, loud enough to make me wince and stop hissing. I glared at her, watching as she shook in fear.

"I-if you d-don't kill m-m-me," she stuttered, " Y-you're a changeling, r-right? You u-use love as f-food?"

"Not all the time," I growled, half-serious. "Like now, if you don't get on my good side."

"There's a t-town near here," she said, starting to regain some of her composure. "I can take you to it. It's got more love than anyplace else, I swear."

_Well this is great…_

On one hoof, I could let her go and, provided she was telling the truth, get as many free meals as I wanted. On the other, she could be setting me up for a trap… a well thought-out one, I had to admit.

A feeling of drowsiness passed over me, now that all the action had wound down. It effectively crushed any argument I had, but I wasn't going to be tricked.

"What's your life worth to you, little pony?" I hissed, glaring at the unicorn who was beginning to lose her composure once more. Her mouth began to move after a few seconds, but I cut her off before she could even start. "Is it worth taking the risk of lying to a changeling?"

"I swear to Celestia, I'm not lying." She said, miraculously without stuttering. I narrowed my eyes and searched for any trace of deceit, but she kept looking me straight in the eye. With a small snarl I got off of her, allowing her to stand.  
Immediately I noticed that she was holding her left foreleg close to her body. I ignored it, figuring she deserved some discomfort for attacking me.

_Eye for an eye, I suppose…_

"Come on, let's go to Ponyville," I said, turning to head back into the forest. I had taken only a few steps before I heard a yelp of pain coming from the unicorn. I turned around to see she had fallen to the ground, from what I assumed was a failed attempt to walk with three legs. I rolled my eyes.

She tried to stand up, but immediately fell back down. She gave it another go, and succeeded in standing up, but fell as soon as she tried walking again, letting out another yelp as her injured leg hit the ground once more. I let out an irritated sigh and walked over to her, realizing we were getting nowhere.

"Okay, this is getting old," I said irritatedly. "Just use some fancy healing spell and be done with it."

The unicorn glared at me. "I don't know any. I've never need to." She struggled once more to her hooves. "And besides, that little duel drained me so much I'd be surprised if I could lift the spellbook I'd need to learn one." She tried walking once more, actually managing to stumble forward a step. I rolled my eyes and suppressed a small giggle, instead standing next to her and wrapping her right foreleg around my shoulder.

"Thank you…" she said softly, obviously surprised. I rolled my eyes again.

"It was painfully clear you weren't going anywhere unless I helped you. And since you're the only one who knows the way to this 'Ponyville', I didn't have much choice." The unicorn huffed and looked off to the side, muttering something to herself.

We slowly but surely worked out a makeshift walk for her, and we began the trek through the woods to this 'Ponyville'. I let the mare do most of the pathfinding, which left me free to observe the forest once more. However, it got old rather quickly.

Bored, I decided to, at the very least, get my companion's name.

"So… what's your name?" I asked, eyes still looking at the forest.

There was a brief silence before she answered. "Pyrite… Pyrite Dreams."

"And what were you doing way out here?"

Another pause. "I'm an archaeologist. I was looking for remains of an ancient cult that used to run in this forest."

"Huh," I replied, not really caring.

"What were YOU doing out here?"

Now it was my turn to stay silent for a moment before giving a half-shrug, trying to express the motion without Pyrite's leg coming off my shoulder. "I woke up."

"Oh, well… what's your name?"

The question stopped me dead in my tracks, and Pyrite with me. She waved a hoof in front of my face, but I ignored it, her question repeating in my head. What was my name?

_He who comes back..._

The whispery, female voice from before went through my head once more, but this time it was just that: a voice. No images or knowledge came with it, just its words. 'He who comes back'… that was something along the lines of a ghost… was that my name? 'Ghost'? Maybe… 'Specter'? Or 'Phantom'?

_Do what must be done…_

The voice had me utterly confused. 'Do what must be done'? It didn't make much sense by itself unless combined with the other phrase…

'He who comes back, do what must be done'. That sounded like a command, but something told me it wasn't. It was more like a phrase, a definition…

I smiled. It _was_ a definition, one that I knew.

"My name, little pony…"

"… is Revenant."


	2. Arrival

A long while later, Pyrite and I finally came to a dirt road, which we followed until the trees and bushes thinned out and we officially exited the forest.

"Ponyville isn't too much farther," Pyrite said, her first sentence since I had told her my name. "We just have to keep along this road." She stopped walking and took her leg off of my shoulder. I gave her a confused look.

"Coming?" I asked, taking a few more steps along the road. Pyrite rolled her eyes.

"Of course. I just thought I should give you a chance to shapeshift." She made a 'go on' motion with her injured leg, but I stood where I was with a blank expression.

"One problem with that…" I began slowly. "I… don't know anyling to change into."

Pyrite gave me a dumbfounded look before facehoofing.

"Can't you just use your imagination?" She asked. I shrugged in reply.

"Okay then, give me a minute," I said, closing my eyes and slowly creating a disguise to change into.

I knew that changelings usually shapeshifted into either a pegasus or a unicorn to keep some of their abilities, only turning into an earth pony when they had to. However, I wanted to keep all my abilities, so I drew a mental picture of a pony with bat-like wings and a horn. With that done, I gave my disguise a flame-like mane and thick tail. Next were colors, which were rather simple. The coat, part of the mane closest to the head, and several streaks in the tail were all colored black. The serpentine eyes and the rest of the mane and tail were colored a bright red.

I couldn't help but smile to myself. A ridiculously easy disguise to make, but it would do. Keeping a mental image of my disguise, I again summoned my magic, willing myself to become the pony I had created.

_Change._

I felt a wave of warmth flow over my body, starting at my hooves and disappearing once it reached the tip of my horn. I felt my body change, warping into what I wanted to. I felt slightly warmer as a black pelt replaced my carapace. My wings felt heavier, yet stronger. I felt the slight weight of my new mane and tail. The familiar feeling of my fangs pressed against my lower lip faded. My head simply felt… different. I opened my eyes, noting how the world seemed just a bit less sharp.

I looked at Pyrite, who's jaw had dropped. I smirked. "Simple, but it'll work, won't it?"

She didn't respond.

"What?" I asked. "Ponies can have wings and horns, right? Pega…corns?"

Pyrite snapped out of her state of shock and glared at me. "They're called 'alicorns', and the only ones alive are princesses." I shrugged in response.

"Well then, you think of something."

Pyrite looked at the ground for a moment, deep in thought, before looking back at me with a small smile.

"Simple," She began. "You remember the clearing we met in?" I opened my mouth to correct 'met' with 'fought', but Pyrite cut me off. "Like I said before, I was searching for signs of ancient cult. While I can't say you were one of them, since all records I have say there weren't any alicorns involved, I could say that I found you in what's called the Everdeep Castle, which isn't too far away from where we were. According to history, it was an old alicorn castle, so it makes sense."

I raised my eyebrow. That was actually a good explanation. "Alright. That works for me."

I walked back over to Pyrite and wrapped her leg around my shoulder once more, and we continued on to Ponyville.

As we neared Ponyville, I got a good look at the many buildings, at least on the edge of the town. Most seemed to be at least two stories high, timber-framed with thatched roofing. As we entered the town itself, I saw that the vast majority were a very light tan, but here and there one was painted a different color, be it green, pink, or something else.

As Pyrite and I began heading deeper into town, we occasionally received an odd look from a pony or two that were milling about. I tried to ignore them, focusing only on the road in front of me. Pyrite steered us along the roads, towards where I hoped was her home so I could drop her off and get to feasting.

Since she was the only one putting any real focus into walking, I couldn't help but let my eyes wander, flicking from pony to pony. There was a strange feeling in the air, something odd yet… strangely enticing.

Eventually we stopped in front of a blocky building that dwarfed the rest of Ponyville. It too was painted a light tan, but the other thing I noticed was a large red cross emblazoned near the top. As my eyes looked it over, my head began to throb softly...

"Here we are," Pyrite announced. "Let's go, I need to get my leg looked at…" She began walking forward once more, but I stayed where I was, forcing her to hop backwards in order to keep me as a support. "What's the problem?"

I gave her a flat look.

"I'm fairly certain this is not your home," I began. "So what is this place." My sentence came out more like a demand than a question, which was exactly how I wanted it to.

"It's a hospital," Pyrite explained. "Ponies with serious injuries come here to get healed, sometimes stay for an extended period if spells can't fix them."

"Uh huh. And how do I know this isn't a trap?" Pyrite sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes.

"If I wanted you found, would I have reminded you to shapeshift? Would I have made a cover story for you?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but shut it almost immediately. Pyrite had a good point, she could've exposed me at any time. She could even do it right now if she wanted. But maybe she was just keeping me hidden until whatever group she was a part of could get their hooves on me…

"Revenant," Pyrite called, snapping me back to reality. I looked her straight in the eyes. "I'm not lying to you. This is not a trap, I promise."

We stayed still for a moment, neither of us moving an inch. Finally, I sighed and relented. "Let's go. The faster we get this done, the faster I can get that love you promised."

Pyrite smiled. "I may be able to fulfill that promise as soon as we get inside. I don't know how close changeling have to be to ponies to absorb love, but…" She trailed off as we walked inside the hospital.

We walked through a small corridor before coming to the main lobby. Pyrite guided us to the front desk and began talking to the pony behind the counter.

I looked around the lobby, noting all the ponies that sat on the various chairs and benches. The room was pristine and smelled strangely. However, something I couldn't see quickly grabbed my attention.

The feeling I had outside was multiplied in here, and I realized that it was the ponies' love and affection for one another. That explained why I felt drawn to it. Now that I knew what love felt like, my instincts kicked in, and I felt all being drawn towards me, rejuvenating me and leaving a taste of what could only be described as goodness in my mouth.

Pyrite finished her conversation with the pony behind the counter and nudged me towards the doors at the back of the lobby. We headed through them, going deeper into the hospital. Despite Pyrite's promise, I still felt nervous of all the ponies here.

Pyrite abruptly turned and we entered one of the many rooms that branched off from the main corridors. I helped her up onto a large table that was pushed against the wall, which proved to not be too hard. I then stood over by the window next to the table and began waiting for… whatever it was we were waiting for.

Before too long, another unicorn, a brown coated stallion wearing a long white coat, came into the room. I briefly paid attention to him as he began examining Pyrite's leg even as he struck up a conversation.  
To my surprise, Pyrite continued to cover for me. She said that her injury was due to a bad fall, and that I had apparently heard her fall and came to investigate, eventually helping her back to Ponyville. The doctor seemed to believe her completely.

"Thank you for bringing Ms. Dreams back here," the doctor said, snapping my attention back to him. "She would have likely been in much worse condition if you hadn't helped her." He held out his hoof. "Doctor Quickfix. You are…?"

I panicked slightly. I didn't have a cover name! That was so stupid of me!

_Think Revenant, think!_

_Night Wing…_

The whispery female voice went through my head once again. I briefly wondered where it kept coming from, but put that aside when I realized I had a new cover name to implement.

"My name is Night Wing," I said, unable to stop myself from smiling slightly as I shook the doctor's hoof. It wasn't my new name, rather it was the sudden flow of goodwill I consumed though the physical contact, which was much easier than taking it in from the ambient emotions.

"Though of you don't mind me asking," the doctor began, releasing the hoofshake. "What were you doing in the Everfree forest, let alone the Everdeep Castle?"

I chuckled. "I was trapped for a long time. I'm suddenly free, and there's an injured pony one floor up." I gestured to Pyrite. "Seems the blood of a virgin was required to free me."

The doctor chuckled for a moment, thinking I was making a joke. I kept a straight face, which was rather hard to do once he stopped chuckling and shifted awkwardly. He coughed into his hoof before speaking again.

"Yes, well…" he said slowly. "Ms. Dreams will be in our care for a short time until we can determine how severe her injuries and treat them appropriately." I glanced at Pyrite, who had her face buried in her hoofs. I couldn't help but crack a grin.

"Need me to stay here, Pyrite?" I asked in a slightly joking tone.

"No Night, I don't need you to foal-sit me," Pyrite replied, face still buried in her hooves. "You can roam around Ponyville for a while. The doctors, hopefully, won't take too long."

"We won't," Quickfix piped up, looking over a few sheets of paper he had pulled out of his coat. "The hospital's not that busy today, so we should have her either fixed up or bandaged up in short order."

"There you go," Pyrite said. "When you get back here, check with the receptionist. She can tell you what room I end up in." She made a shooing motion. "Well, go on!"

I walked back out into the hallway and headed through the corridor back to the lobby, where I sat down for a short while, consuming the ambient love and affection while I decided what to do. So far the ponies seemed nice enough, but I couldn't help but be a little on edge. Though there really wasn't anything I could do about it right now, so I would have to bear it.

I had a strange compulsion to actually check on Pyrite later, one that I couldn't shake off. With a sigh, I decided to follow my original 'plan' before coming back to the hospital. My decision made, I lingered for just a bit longer in the lobby before heading back out into Ponyville.

I began to wander through the streets, noting how just about every building followed the same construction and colors I had when first arriving. The greatest deviation I passed was a house seemingly made out of sweets, but that had been all so far.

I noted that the love and affection in open Ponyville wasn't nearly as filling as that in the hospital. I still managed to gather a decent amount, however, due to the sheer amount of ponies present. The taste was also much different, much milder.

Suddenly, a wall of pink appeared in front of me.

I blinked for a moment before realizing I was startled, then recoiled accordingly. I then saw that the wall was actually an entirely pink earth pony, the sole exception being her sky-blue eyes. She smiled widely at me, completely oblivious to the fact she had scared me.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!" she introduced herself rather loudly. I waved weakly, and she giggled before starting to bounce in circles around me.

"What's your name? Where are you from? You're an alicorn aren't you? Are you from Canterlot?" She stopped smiling and bouncing for a moment, gasping hugely with a shocked expression before her smile returned wider than ever and she stood directly in front of me.

"Are you a prince? What are you prince of? I bet you're prince of the night! Oh wait, that's Princess Luna! She used to be a real meanie-pants, but them me and my friends used-"

"STOP!" I yelled, holding my head as it ached in response to the mare barrage of questions. The pony giggled again before continuing to speak.

"Sorry, I just get super-duper excited whenever I meet a new pony, because then I get to throw a party for them!" She seemed like she was going to go off again, so I held up a hoof to signal her to stop.

"My name is Night Wing, yes I'm an alicorn, no I'm not a prince. And who's Princess Lu-"

A brief stab of pain went through my head, accompanied by images of a large, black alicorn with a starry mane, and several golden necklaces and a tiara. I winced at the beginning, but when the images finally faded, I began talking without realizing it.

"Oh right, Princess Luna!" I smiled. "You said you and your friends used something on her… the Elements of Harmony, right?" Pinkie nodded rapidly.

"Sure as sugar!" Pinkie giggled slightly. "At first, we were all like 'Grr!', but then we were all 'Oh no!', and then Twilight was all like, 'Friendship!', and then we were all like 'Rainbow!' and Luna was all 'Nooo!', then she turned into a filly!"

I nodded slowly. Her story seemed a little far-fetched, but I knew it was true, even if I didn't know how.

"Okay, Pinkie Pie…" I began, but she cut me off.

"Just 'Pinkie' is fine!" She gave me an earnest smile.

"Okay Pinkie, I should be going," I started inching away from her. "I have some… food I want to pick up."

With one last nervous smile, I started walking away from Pinkie, hoping I wouldn't run into her again.

"Wait!" Pinkie called. I turned to look at her.

"The market's that way," she said matter-of-factly, pointing behind her. I blinked.

"Right…" I said slowly. "Well… thanks…"

I quickly trotted away, hoping to find someling who wasn't as… excitable as Pinkie. I glanced behind me to see her bounce off, probably to scare another changeling in disguise.

I slowed down to a walk once I was certain that I was far away enough from that pony. Despite her excitability, she had pointed me in the right direction, as I noticed that stands were beginning to show up, becoming more frequent as I walked further into what was apparently Ponyville's marketplace.

Eventually I came to large, round plaza that was bustling with ponies. They came and went, usually arriving with empty saddlebags and leaving with an assortment of fruits and vegetables.

Off-hoofedly, I noticed that there was little to no affection, not even goodwill, in the air. Everything was business in the market. Frowning, I decided to move on to another part of Ponyville. I started moving through the crowds to the opposite side of the market, but something, or rather someling, caught my eye.

What seemed like a purple and green lizard was weaving between, and underneath, the many ponies in the area, a bright red apple clutched in each claw. Strangely interested, I began following it, confused that even though several ponies noticed it, they actually greeted the reptile, which it returned in passing.

I followed the lizard until it hopped up on the back of, and began _chatting_ with, a purple unicorn mare. She was actually smiling as she talked to it, like it was a friend of hers.

Suddenly the lizard pointed right at me, and the unicorn followed his pointing. When she caught sight of me through the crowd, her eyes widened, then narrowed. She started to make her way through the crowd towards me, moving much slower than the lizard on her back had.

I started to panic. The absolute last thing I wanted was another crazy pony to 'talk' to. Thinking quickly, I spread my wings, jumped into the air, and took off. I circled over the marketplace a few times, searching for the unicorn. I saw her on the ground, still searching for me.

With a small smile, I took off back towards Ponyville hospital. I had had enough sightseeing for one day.


	3. Covert

**Author's Note:  
Pyrite Dreams is the OC of Lucius Seneca and Stillmatic.**

* * *

It was a short flight before I touched down in front of the hospital. I looked around me to be sure that the unicorn hadn't somehow followed me. Confident that she hadn't I let out a sigh of relief and walked back into the hospital. I let out a smaller sigh as I entered the lobby and didn't spot her among the ponies. Whom I immediately started draining love from again.

I walked up to the receptionist and asked her where Pyrite was. She directed me down the hall Pyrite and I had gone down before and up the stairs at the far end. Pyrite's room was 210, just after the stairs.

I walked into Pyrite's room and found her lying on a bed, looking completely bored. I cleared my throat loudly and got her attention, her face practically lighting up when she saw me. I smirked as she waved me over, obviously relieved to have some company.

"Enjoying our great town so far?" she asked, with just a hint of sarcasm. I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head.

"Yeah, not so much," I said. "There's a lot of crazy ponies out there."

Pyrite giggled softly. "Yeah, I'll admit, sometimes even I'm not sure I like it here."

"I take it you've run into a few crazies?"

Pyrite's smile turned to a frown. "No, not crazies, just… somepony I don't like so much." She gritted her teeth in disgust. "She's 'special'."

I raised an eyebrow at Pyrite's reaction. There was obviously something between her and whoever she hated so much, but I decided to let the subject drop in favor of something more relative to the present.

"How long is that going to keep you here?" I asked, gesturing to her injured leg, now wrapped in white bandages.

"Just until Quickfix comes back," she answered. "He said that my leg wasn't hurt too badly, and he can fix it with a spell." She sighed. "That may take a while though… Ponyville hospital can tell you what's wrong, and then fix it two hours later."

I chuckled. "If you knew that spell yourself, we wouldn't have to wait on anyling."

"I suppose not…" Pyrite admitted. "But I'm too busy to have time to learn a healing spell."

I looked at Pyrite's cutie mark, a vase being dusted off, and was reminded of what she did. "Does archaeology really take that much time?"

Pyrite smiled fondly. "That and more."

I sat down in a chair next to Pyrite's bed. Our conversation had come to a stop, and I immediately became bored again. As my thoughts wandered, I realized I had a problem. I had no place to stay, and no money to use. I looked over to Pyrite, who was looking out the window next to her.

"So…" I began uncertainly. "Have you got a place to stay?"

"Yeah, I'm staying at a friend's house while she's out of town," she answered, still looking out the window. After a moment of silence, I opened my mouth to speak again, but Pyrite turned to me and cut me off. "Yes, you can stay with me."  
My mouth hung open. How did she know I was going to ask that?

Are you using a mind-reading spell or something?" I asked, worried that she might actually know one. Pyrite laughed.

"No, you're just that obvious." She stopped laughing but kept a smile. "And besides, you're a changeling. I'm pretty sure you don't have a home, considering you didn't have anypony to change into."

I frowned. "That's kind of why I'm surprised. I'm the changeling who injured you. Why are you helping me?"

Pyrite shrugged. "You helped me get back home. I owe you that much. And you can help me next time I go into the Everfree."

It was my turn to shrug. "Sure, I guess. If it'll mean paying you off."

Before we could say any more, Doctor Quickfix came into the room, walking right up to Pyrite.

"Alright Ms. Dreams, time to get you all fixed up and out of here." He suddenly noticed me and turned to me with a smile.

"Good to see you again, Mr. Wing," he said. "This'll only take a moment."

Quickfix turned back to Pyrite and touched his horn to the bandages around Pyrite's leg, both of which lit up with a green glow. The glow came and went quickly, and the bandages fell off Pyrite's limb. She jumped off the bed and stood on all four hooves for the first time since our fight. Her excitement was obvious.

"Thanks doc," she said, but Quickfix waved his hoof.

"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my job." The doctor said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some other patients that need attending." He swiftly walked out of the room and left Pyrite and I alone.

"Well," Pyrite began. "Shall we go?"

I nodded, and we left the room, walking back downstairs and stopping in the lobby briefly, where Pyrite checked out of the hospital and I had what was best described as a snack. Finally, we left the hospital for good, and headed off to another part of Ponyville.

"So…" I began. "Where' your friend's house?" I looked around us at all the houses, trying to guess which one we would be staying at.

"It's not too far," Pyrite replied. "We just have a bit of a walk."  
I nodded and relaxed, lessening my attention on walking and focusing on the trickles of love I continued to absorb from the air of Ponyville. I found that by concentrating on them and giving a mental 'tug', I could actually increase the flow.

"There he is!" A loud yell caught my attention. I looked behind me to see the unicorn and lizard from the marketplace following us, and catching up quickly.

"Pyrite," I said, stopping and turning to fully face our pursuers. "We've got company."  
Pyrite turned around, gritting her teeth when she saw the unicorn and lizard catching up and slowly moved into a low fighting stance.

The pair quickly caught up to us since we had stopped moving. The unicorn ran straight up to me and stuck a hoof in my face as the lizard jumped off her back.

"You! Just who do you think you are!?" she yelled.

"I'm Night Wi-" I began, but the unicorn cut me off.

"Don't lie to me! I know you're a changeling!" She poked me in the chest. "How did you get into Ponyville!?"

Pyrite suddenly cut in. "He came here with me. And he's _not_ a changeling."

The unicorn looked from me to Pyrite, her expression softening and becoming sympathetic.

"I'm sorry that this changeling fooled you," she said, placing a hoof on Pyrite's shoulder, but it was immediately and harshly shrugged off as Pyrite glared at the her.

"Nopony's fooling anypony," Pyrite declared. "Night Wing found me injured in the Everdeep and _helped me_ get back to Ponyville."

"That's just it trying to get on your good side," the unicorn said. I felt my left eye twitch involuntarily. "That's how they infiltrate pony society."

"Why don't you leave my FRIEND alone, _Sparkle_." Pyrite practically spat the name out. The unicorn cocked her head.

"Do I know you?" she asked. Pyrite rolled her eyes.

"You used to, apparently," Pyrite said, rolling her eyes before resuming her glare. "Pyrite Dreams. We went to magic kindergarten together."

The unicorn's eyes lit up in recognition and she smiled widely, obviously oblivious to Pyrite's distaste for her.

"Celestia, Pyrite, I didn't recognize you!" she said excitedly. "How have you been?" She then turned to glare at me again. "Other than being tricked by changelings, which I don't blame you for."

Pyrite gritted her teeth and stamped her hoof down on the ground. "For the last time, he's not a changeling, Ms. Snitch!"

The unicorn cocked her head again. "What do you mean?"

"Oh how could I forget!" Pyrite exclaimed. "It seemed like every time somepony was even the slightest bit out of line, there was always one pony who ran to the teacher! Guess who I'm talking about!" Pyrite breathed heavily before continuing. "And while I could just maybe understand that, there was the fact that you were always playing _teacher's pet_! Of course, you always had your head buried so far into whatever you were studying to show up the rest of us, that you didn't even notice nopony like you!" She started seething by the end of her speech, clearly having opened some old wounds.

"Hey!" The lizard next to the unicorn looked about ready to blow a fuse, its hands clenched into first by its sides. "Twilight's a great pony, and she has lots of friends! So leave her alone!"

Feeling a little left out of the conversation, I lowered my head so I could look at the lizard eye-to-eye.

"I suppose you can prove that?" I asked, glaring at it. "What are you, her pet lizard?"

"I'm a dragon," the unicorn's pet growled. "And I don't have to prove anything. Ask anypony and they'll tell you."

I slammed my hoof down next to the dragon and brought my face slightly closer to his, snarling and locking eyes with him.

"Why don't you crawl back into whatever egg you came out of, and tell your foal-sitter to leave us alone, or I'll make you _wish_ I was a changeling."

The dragon's angry and resolute demeanor shattered instantly. "Um, Twilight? I think we should leave them alone…"

"Come on, Night Wing," Pyrite said, turning to leave. "We're going."

I scoffed at the unicorn, "Twilight Sparkle", and her pet dragon before turning and walking away with Pyrite, muttering about how unwelcoming Ponyville was just loud for them to hear.

I quickly caught up to Pyrite, who was walking rather rapidly. I stopped muttering and turned to her, noting how visibly angered she still was.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that 'Twilight' was the pony you're not too fond of?" I inquired, receiving a deep scowl in return.

"I despise her," Pyrite growled. "I wasn't kidding about what I said. She was the most obnoxious pony in magic kindergarten, always showing somepony up in one thing or another."

I nodded sympathetically and decided to stop talking about the unicorn.

Thankfully, it wasn't too much longer before Pyrite made a sudden turn and walked up to a two-story building that I assumed was her friend's house. She walked up the steps and used her magic to fish a small golden key from a planter that hung underneath a window next to the front door. She quickly opened the door and walked inside, gesturing for me to follow. I did so, and Pyrite close the door as soon as I was inside.

I took a moment to look around the interior of the house, or at least as much as I could see from where I was standing.

Directly in front of me was a hallway, with a set of stairs at the end. To my left was a kitchen, with a single table and four chairs, and a counter that took up most of the far wall, with a sink located underneath a window just a bit out from the corner of the room and a set of cupboards.

To my right was a living room, furnished with a couch, a large, low table in front of it, and several comfortable-looking chairs, two of which sat across from the couch, separated by the table. Pyrite made a beeline for the couch and leaped up on top of it, letting out a huge sigh as she landed and sprawled herself out.

Now that we were in private, I shapeshifted back into my normal self with a flash of green flames. I let out a sigh as I ruffled my wings, feeling so much better in my real body, and slightly surprised at how my voice sounded just a little bit different. I shrugged. After all, it _was_ my real voice. If anything, it sounded better.

I walked into the living room and hopped up onto one of the chairs across from Pyrite's couch, feeling so much lighter and more agile than my alicorn body. I couldn't help but grin.

Pyrite stirred slightly, slowly rising a bit off the couch and looking at me before flopping back down.

"Just remember to not let anypony see you," she said drowsily. I rolled my eyes and smirked. I wouldn't forget.

I shifted in my chair, the silence between us comfortable, but slightly boring. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Pyrite sat up and looked at me. "What?"

I shrugged. "Got anything to do around here?"

"You could always go to town hall and check the billboard for a job," she suggested. "There's usually a few plastered up there. Simple things, usually."

I frowned. "Simple enough to keep my cover?"

Pyrite laughed. "I'm pretty sure. I can only think of one or two ponies that would even suspect you, and they're pals with Sparkle anyway."

I shrugged again and returned to 'Night Wing' with a flash. "Be back soon, I guess."

Pyrite waved farewell as I got off my chair and left the house somewhat reluctantly. I closed the door behind me and sighed once more. I hoped I wouldn't run into any more trouble.


	4. Firsts

I slowly set back out into the streets of Ponyville. I sighed and hoped that the walk to town hall would be less eventful than the walk to Pyrite's house. I then stopped and blinked as I came to a realization.

I had no idea where town hall was, and no idea how to get there.

I stamped my hoof down at my own stupidity before remembering I could just find it from the skies. I spread my wings and took off, circling above Pyrite's house until I was high enough that it was no longer distinguishable from its surrounding buildings.

From my new height, it was easy to see the few unique buildings in Ponyville, among them the hospital, a literal 'tree house', the building made of sweets I had seen earlier, a carousel-shaped building, and another circular building that stood higher than any other structure in Ponyville. Assuming it was the town hall, I turned and started flying towards it at a leisurely speed.

Along the way, I noticed pegasi flitting from cloud to cloud, pushing, pulling, and generally redirecting them. They were probably setting up for a rainstorm, so I quickened my pace towards my destination, not wanting to be soaked through when the rain came.

I landed in front of what I could confirm was town hall and quickly spotted the billboard Pyrite mentioned. I walked up to it and started looking it over, noting how it was virtually covered with posters and flyers, many layered on top of each other. Looking at the board a few times, a noticed that a good dozen or so flyers were all 'Missing' flyers, with pictures of small grey unicorn filly from every conceivable angle. I quickly snatched them off the board, smirking as I realized I could use them as a guide to create a new disguise, hopefully on that was even less obvious than my current one.

That aside, I scanned the board and focused on my real objective: finding a job. A great deal of the job ads called for some sort of workplace experience, which I had none of. I finally found one ad who's only requirements were a 'good set of legs', labeled "Apple Bucker". Mission completed, I held all of my newly acquired fliers in my mouth as I took off once more, quickly making my way back to Pyrite's.

I landed and opened the door to the house, not bothering to wait until I had fully entered to revert to my changeling form. I walked inside and closed the door behind me, looking to my right to see Pyrite sound asleep on the couch. I grinned sadistically and walked over to her, depositing the fliers on the center table as I walked by.

Lowering my head, I slowly moved forward, my horn pointed directly at Pyrite's side, until…

"AAAAHHH!" Pyrite screamed in shock, shooting into the air faster than I could and crashing back down to the couch just as fast. I burst out laughing the moment she reacted and continued even after she crashed and flailed about, trying to right herself. She finally managed to do so, and quickly shot me a death glare that only made me laugh harder.

"That thing's sharp!" She yelled, pointing at my horn while rubbing the side I had poked her. "Watch what you're doing, you could skewer somepony with that!"

I stopped laughing at the last bit of her outburst. I thought for a moment and then smiled widely again. "Thanks for the idea!"

Pyrite sighed dramatically and finally noticed the fliers on the table.

"What are these?" She asked, using her magic to sift through the fliers.

"Most of those are just for a new disguise," I answered. "But there's a job flyer for 'Apple Bucking', whatever that is."

Pyrite looked up and grinned. "Of all the jobs on that board…" She shook her head and chuckled, getting up off of the couch and heading upstairs, leaving me completely confused.

"Coming?" Pyrite asked, snapping me back to reality. I nodded and followed her upstairs, both of us stopping outside a somewhat small room with a single bed pressed underneath a pair of windows that completely took up the far wall. The only other furnishing in the room was a small sidetable next to the bed.

"I take it this is my room?" I asked, slightly liking the small and sparse room. Pyrite nodded.

"Yep, and don't even think of sneaking into my room," She snapped. I chuckled softly.

"Now what makes you think I would ever do such a thing?" I asked in a mocking tone, receiving an eye-roll in reply. Pyrite pointed to the bed and I followed her gaze, now noticing two stacks of books, a little over a dozen total, running the gamut from small and thin to large and thick.

"I thought about your comment while we were in the hospital, about learning a healing spell or two-"

"Hey," I interrupted. "I said _you_ should learn some spells, not me."

"-So I dug around the house and found some spellbooks for you to study." Pyrite patted me on the back. "Have fun with your required reading."

With that, Pyrite turned and walked further down the hallway, through a set of double doors that I assumed accessed a much larger room than mine. Shrugging, I walked into my room and used my magic to levitate the books off the bed before I jumped up on it, shifting around for a bit and trying to find a comfortable position.

Once I had settled down, I levitated the first four books from the piles into the air, cycling through them as I read the titles aloud.

"Let's see what we've got here… 'Advanced Healing Techniques'… 'Standard Book of Spells: Volume I'… 'Advanced Magicks'… 'Beginner's Guide to Combat Magicks'? Well that's one book I didn't expect to see…"

I randomly chose to start with the 'Standard Book of Spells', placing the other three books back on their piles. Noting how large the book I had chosen was, I expected to be in for a long read. I opened to a random page, which happened to be the intro to 'Chapter 7'. Surprisingly, at least half of what I was 'reading' was diagrams and charts, apparently made to go along with the actual written lessons. I began reading, paying attention to everything written down and remembering everything important.

"Hmm… oh hey, these are lock-opening spells!"

I closed the 'Standard Book of Spells', having memorized Chapter 7. I knew how to open any kind of lock, normal or magic, with what I hoped would be no trouble at all. I mentally thanked Pyrite for getting me these books, as I was sure they would only help me more as I continued to read them.

I levitated the large book back onto its pile with the rest of my material and shifted a bit more, finally getting into a comfortable position and closing my eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.

_This is my new life… and I'm happy with it._

_Flashes of things…_

Everything…

Nothing…

Something…

It was something… I couldn't describe…

Swirling…screaming…crying…just a face…over and over again…

It's gone…

What's…who're…

Flash…

**She led me through the hive. She smiled. I smiled.**

_Flash…_

**My heart beat faster, even as it died. The end was coming, in more ways than one.**

_Flash…_

**Her offspring was different than the rest. Just as I had requested.**

_Flash…_

**They were back. I knew they would be back.**

_Flash…_

**Kill them all, my children. Let them know we are not who they think we are.**

_Flash…_

**It's gone wrong.**

Wrong.

ALL WRONG.

_It's gone wrong, all of it._

_Flash…_

_Sleep, child, sleep…just like FATHER!_

_Black._

A sudden, piercing pain in my chest, as if I had been stabbed, tore me from my slumber, making me practically scream in agony. I clutched at the right side of my chest as I convulsed and fell off my bed, the impact feeling like an itch compared to my chest.

I screwed my eyes together as I tried to wait out the pain, but it dragged on for what seemed like hours, my chest feeling like it had come apart every time another pulse of pain erupted. I was faintly aware of my back hoof kicking something, which was then followed by an extremely dull thudding. The pain felt like it was getting worse as time dragged on, and the rest of my body started becoming numb as the stabbing feeling in my chest grew.

I eventually cracked open my eyes amidst my thrashing and saw the door to my room fly open and who I could faintly recognize as Pyrite running over to me and saying something that was too muffled to hear. In response, what sounded like a thousand voices screaming in terror went off in my head, giving me a migraine rivaled only by the stabbing feeling in my chest.

The two began building in a horrible harmony, forcing me to endure an ever-increasing amount of anguish as they continued unrelenting. Finally, I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness…

Then it stopped.

All the pain vanished as if it had never been there. In its place was a simple tingling, something that felt soothing compared to what had been there previously. My throat felt like it had been torn to shreds and reassembled, leaving it the only part of me still in any real discomfort.

I breathed heavily as I struggled to my hooves, Pyrite helping me up. The room was spinning and it took a moment for me to get my bearings. When my vision finally corrected itself, I looked over to see Pyrite looking back at me with a mixture of fear, worry, and horror.

"What happened?" I croaked.

"I… I don't know," Pyrite stuttered. She slowly let go of me once she was sure I wouldn't fall back to the floor and allowed me to stand by myself. "I heard a few thumps and a crash, and when I came in, you were rolling around and clutching your chest like you had been stabbed. And that's not mentioning the soul-piercing scream you were letting out the entire time."

I couldn't help but shiver at Pyrite's description. I never wanted to experience that pain ever again. I started walking shakily out of my room, desperately trying to ignore the slight throbbing in my head.

"Well, I should be going…" I croaked, hoping that Pyrite would just let me go. "Can't be late for work, now can I?"  
I buzzed down the stairs and up to the door, shapeshifting with a flash and levitating a pair of saddlebags onto my back with a short burst of magic. I heard Pyrite running down the stairs behind me, but I ignored her shouts for me to wait as I dashed out the front door and spread my wings, taking off into the air.

Like before, I circled above the house, gaining altitude until I could see, off in the distance, a large orchard that was likely the 'Sweet Apple Acres' that was the location of my new job. I began flying towards the orchard, trying to forget the events of moments before.

As I approached Sweet Apple Acres, I circled around a large red barn a few times, confirming that it was the only significant structure for a good distance in any direction. I touched down in front of the barn and knocked, waiting for a response.

After what seemed like a few minutes, I began growing impatient. I tapped my hoof on the ground, still waiting for someling to answer. I was about to knock again, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around and reflexively readied a blast of magic, the green light of my horn lighting up the face of the stallion that I was standing face-to-face with.

He was a bit taller than me, and his coat was a reddish color. His mane was orange, and his eyes were green. I noticed he had a yoke around his neck and a piece of hay stuck in his mouth.

"Y'all might wanna be careful of them magics," he said with a thick accent. "We do things th' old fashion'd way 'round here."

I blinked as the stallion chewed on his piece of hay. I slowly dissipated my magic and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of  
my head.

"Eh, sorry about that," I apologized. "I thought you were trying to sneak up on me."

"If'n ya figure Ah was tryin' ta sneak up on ya," The stallion said slowly. "Then why'd Ah tap ya on th' shoulder?"

I shrugged. "I dunno." I held out my hoof. "Sorry, name's Night Wing, I'm here for the apple bucking job."

The stallion shook my hoof firmly. "Big Macintosh. Ya sure yer ready fer this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Big Macintosh nodded and opened the door to the barn, going inside for moment before coming back out with two baskets held together by a pair of straps that the held in his teeth. He placed the buckets on my back, and I grimaced as they crushed my wings to my sides.

"Now," he began. "Yer job is ta go out there inta th' orchard, and buck them apple trees till them apples fall inta yer bucket. Then bring 'em back here an' get yerself another set a' buckets. Wash, rinse, repeat."

"Okay," I said. "Doesn't sound too hard."

Big Macintosh grinned. "That's what th' last one said…" He chuckled, walking off and leaving me alone and confused. And slightly afraid.

With a sigh, I reminded myself that I had signed up for the job, and had to see it through. I began walking away from the barn and into the apple orchard, noting how most of the trees close to the barn were already bare of fruit. I began wondering why he called for help in the first place.

After a good walk, I finally came to an apple tree chock full of fruit. As I walked around the tree, observing, I looked over the hill I was currently standing on. My jaw dropped.

The orchard was a _lot_ bigger than I thought it was, as I could see trees filled with apples stretching on farther than I could see. I gulped and turned back to the tree I had been circling around. Endless fields or not, it was time to get started.

I turned around and started lining myself up as best I could with the trunk of the tree. Once I was sure that I was aiming squarely at the center, I reared up on my forelegs and gave the tree a solid buck. The entire plant shook as I hit it, before a good portion of the apples in the tree fell into the buckets on my back, not a single one hitting the ground.

However, as the apples quickly fell into the buckets, I felt their added weight pressing down on my wings, the pressure quickly going from uncomfortable to painful. With a green flash, I shapeshifted my wings so that they were resting on top of the basket's straps and were no longer being crushed. I sighed in relief before turning my attention back to the tree, bucking it twice more to get the rest of the apples down.

Once that was done, I began heading back to the barn, reflecting on how being an 'Apple Bucker' wouldn't be so bad after all.

Once I came back to the barn, I noticed that an orange earth pony with staw-colored hair and a cowpony hat with a large cast on her left rear leg doing a rapid three-legged hop-walk towards the barn. She looked like she belonged on the farm, so I levitated the baskets off my back and placed them with a stack of other buckets that hadn't been present when I had set out.

"Hi!" I called in the friendliest voice I could. The earth pony whirled around to face, looking panicked before she smiled nervously .

"Oh, uh, hey there," she replied quickly. "Are uh, are you th' new farmhoof Big Mac was talkin' about?"  
I raised an eyebrow at her nervousness, but quickly switched to a smile. "That I am. Name's Night Wing." I held out a hoof, which the mare looked at for a few seconds before extending her own and shaking weakly.

"Name' Applejack," she introduced. "Ah'd uh, ah'd usually be out in the fields with ya, but mah leg's not so good fer buckin' anythin' right now…"

I chuckled and pointed to her injured leg. "You should probably see a doctor for that. They could probably fix you right up."

Applejack seemed to settle down, narrowing her eyes and giving me a slight glare. "Ah don't need none a' that magic hoohah. Ah got mah granny's care, and nature'll take care a' the rest."  
I shrugged. "If you say so."

Applejack and I stood unmoving for a second, the silence becoming slightly awkward. Finally, Applejack nodded towards the barn behind her. "Well uh, it was nice chattin' with ya, Naght Wing, but uh, I need to talk to ma brother 'bout something…"

As Apple jack turned to leave to go into the barn, I grinned as she bumped into her brother, who had just come out of it. She stumbled back awkwardly due to her injured leg, and Big Macintosh raised an eyebrow.

"Big Mac!" Applejack cried. "Ah was just about ta come see you!"

Big Macintosh nodded and then looked at me. "And Ah was about to come see you."

I stepped towards the siblings. "What do you need?"

Big Macintosh pulled a roll of paper from his yoke and hoofed it to me. I looked it over briefly before levitating it into my saddlebag. "What's that for?"

"Jus' some supplies we need from a zebra named Zecora," Big Macintosh explained. "She lives in a small hut in th' Everfree Forest. Ya can't miss it if ya follow th' path."

I nodded. "No problem. I'll be back on a jiffy."

"Ah'd be careful if Ah were you," He warned. "Yer an alicorn an' all, so Ah'm sure you'll be fine, but some ponies goin' inta the Everfree don' come back out."

I chuckled and flared my wings, letting my horn light up green for effect. "I wouldn't worry too much. Like you said, I'm an alicorn. I'll be fine." Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Applejack was sweating buckets. I turned to her.

"By the way miss, you look like you're coming down with something. You might want to see that doctor I mentioned."

With a wink, I turned around and started running down the path Big Macintosh had mentioned, smirking as I made my way to the Everfree. I couldn't believe he was worried. Disappearing ponies or not, I was ready for anything the forest could throw at me.


	5. Unknown

Eventually the edge of the Everfree Forest came into sight, looking significantly creepier than it had before. I slowly stopped running as I neared the forest, suddenly noting that the dirt path I was following was slowly beginning to fade away. While I could still see it clearly outside the forest, there was no telling how much it had been swept away in the forest.

I quickly glanced around, making sure noling was around to see me. Confident I was alone, and that my small flash wouldn't be seen, I shapeshifted back into my normal self, unable to prevent a small grin as the path before me became just a tiny bit sharper. I grinned, noting how being a changeling was just about better than being a pony in every way.

Shifting my saddlebags to be more comfortable, I headed into the forest.

For some reason, I found my second experience in the Everfree to be incredibly… boring. The natural appeal of the trees and wildlife had faded, and I almost wished that some pony would attack me, if only to break me away from the monotony of my walk. Past experience and a warning had led me to believe the Everfree was a bit more… exciting.

A sudden rustling from behind me caught my attention. I whirled around and readied my magic, letting out a hiss as a bush continued ruslting.

The shaking continued for a few moments before coming to an abrupt stop. I relaxed slightly, thinking that it had just been a few animals going at it. However, I wasn't taking any chances, so I kept my gaze on the bush for a little while longer.

I squinted, trying to see what was inside the bush that had made it shake so much. I could see a pair of faint, almost imperceptible icy blue eyes staring at me. Eyes that I probably wouldn't have been able to spot if I was a pony. I stared into the eyes and let out a low growl…

… Before a small grey unicorn filly walked out of the bush.

The two of us stared at one another, unblinking and immobile. What surprised me was how the filly just looked at me with a blank, emotionless expression, like I was just another pony and not an emotion-consuming monster.

Slowly, the filly turned and began walking back along the path I come in on. A part of me was slightly put off by her. The Everfree was a supposedly dangerous place, and here this filly was walking about like it was nothing. Deciding to just put it down to her living somewhere in the woods, I began to walk deeper into the woods.

_Wait._

I had seen her somewhere before. She was… she was…

She was the filly from the posters.

I turned around and sprinted back towards the entrance to the forest. If I saved this filly, I could convince Twilight Sparkle that I wasn't a changeling. At the moment, she was the only one who suspected me, but I didn't need her whipping the town into a frenzy.

After a few seconds, it occurred to me that I would have passed the filly a ways back. I slowed to stop and looked around, but the unicorn was nowhere to be found.

_Where did she go?_

I frowned, partially because an opportunity had been lost, but mostly because I found it strange that a filly moving that slowly could disappear without a trace.

Turning, I continued along the path towards my destination: Zecora's hut.

"Who is this I see?" She asked, seemingly to herself. "And what is it you want from me?"

I gave her a small bow and smiled. "Night Wing. I take it you are Zecora?"

The zebra nodded. "That is my name indeed. Now what is it you need?"

I levitated the letter out of my saddlebag and presented it to her. "This is from Big Macintosh, at Sweet Apple Acres."

Zecora's eye lit up. "Ah, a courier you are? From the Acres, that is far."

I shrugged. "Not really. Just a bit of a run." The zebra chuckled and moved back into her hut, gesturing for me to come inside.

"Please, do come inside. Let me show you this abode of mine."

I walked in at Zecora's invitation, and she shut the door behind me.

The interior of Zecora's hut was very similar to what I thought it would be. It was clearly carved out of the tree, to the point where the walls must have been rather thin. Various tables were pressed up against the walls, littered with all kinds of plants and specimens. Various masks hung from the walls, no two looking the same. In the middle of the hut was a large, black… pot-thing. It was simmering, and a column of white smoke rose through a hole in the roof, up through the tree and out of sight.

"Night Wing, that is your name?" Zecora asked as she walked over to and stood by the pot. I nodded in response. "I am quite glad you came."

"Something wrong?" I asked, cocking my head.

"You are an alicorn, yes? I had hoped Macintosh would not send any but the best."

I raised an eyebrow. "This has to do with the whole 'disappearing pony' thing, doesn't it?"

Zecora looked surprised, and I smirked before continuing.

"Not to be rude or anything, but I should probably get back to Sweet Apple Acres soon." I tossed the letter to her, and she successfully caught it in her mouth. "So if you don't mind?"

"Of course, I understand your haste," she said, somehow managing to speak clearly around the letter in her mouth. "Now the first thing: a paste…" Zecora turned and headed deeper into her hut, going through a wall of hanging beads and out of sight, leaving me alone.

I quickly became bored and started pacing around the room, eyes glued to floor. Eventually I let out a groan and looked around the hut for something to entertain myself.

A few of the masks suddenly caught my eye, distracting me from my wait. I walked over to one that hung on the wall above one of the windows. Its carved-out eyes stared at the opposite end of the room, a huge, empty smiling mouth gave it an appearance of humor, yet there was a serious element about it. The sole color present was a bright green, not too far off from the color of my magic.

_Miru…_

Again, that female voice came from nowhere. A throb of discomfort accompanied it, and I gritted my teeth. That voice was starting to get on my nerves.

I turned away from the mask and focused my attention on the table below the same window. It was littered with all kinds animal parts, most looking like they were being used as a part of one concoction or another. A few bones that had been carved into tools laid here and there, a few green scales were floating inside a vat of what seemed like honey, and a pile of long red feathers smoked incessantly.

The thing that really grabbed my attention, however, wasn't a piece or fragment of an animal. Instead, it was a long, snake-like creature, with several oddities. Its coloring was a fire-like red near the head, fading to orange at the center, before continuing on to yellow at the end of its body. The head was split into four sections, the entirety of it operating as mandibles, made clear by the row of teeth in each. Two bright yellow eyes were on the top two mandibles, and might have appeared frightening if the creature had been alive. And to top it all off, a row of several spines ran from the neck of the creature along its back to about two-thirds the way down its body.

_Kraata…_

With a sharp growl, I turned away from the snake-thing. I didn't know what had me so fixated on it, but all it had brought me was the voice once more, and another bout of headache. I quickly glanced at the wall of beads to see if Zecora had returned yet, but it seemed she was still busy with whatever.

I refocused on the large black pot-like object that I had seen when I had first entered Zecora's hut. I stared at it like I had the sna… Kraata, drinking in every detail. The name was on the tip of my tongue, and it was slightly angering how I couldn't place it. I closed my eyes and frowned, a name slowly coming to me the more I strained to know it.

It was a… a… a cau-

Suddenly, my train of thought was blown apart by burst of pain that was only rivaled by my waking up that morning. I let out a short scream as I grabbed my head as the feeling of multiple polearms being run through my head assaulted me for, thankfully, only a few seconds.

As the pain receded, a hot but nowhere near as painful wave of heat rolled over my body, from the tip of my horn to end of my tail. It was accompanied by a feeling of complete disorientation. I slowly stood up, stumbling but somehow not bumping into anything. My vision was hazy and unfocused, and my groans were almost inaudible.

A muffled voice rang through the hut, drawing my attention to the back of the room. I saw a white blur coming out from the wall of the hut, slightly spotted with grey. As my vision refocused, I saw that it was Zecora, a shocked expression on her face. Her jaw dropped as we made eye contact, sending a bag of blue liquid falling to the floor.

"-geling!" She shouted, her voice coming into focus mid-yell, which meant I had no idea what she was saying. I thought it sounded like 'changeling'…

Oh no.

I looked down at myself, confirming my fears. The migraine from left field and the accompanying wave of heat had stripped me of my disguise. I looked back up to see that Zecora had dashed back into the depths of her hut, likely to get something to fight me with.

I quickly dashed around the still-unnamed pot, grabbing the bag of blue liquid in my mouth before stuffing it in my saddlebag and sprinting out the door. Once I was out of sight of Zecora's hut, I shapeshifted back into Night Wing, hoping that some of my cover could be saved.

I ran through the Everfree Forest, back along the path that I had followed previously. My sole focus was getting back to Sweet Apple Acres in hopes that I could salvage something of this day, which was turning out to be a disaster.

I quickly glanced behind me to see if Zecora had given chase. Instead of a zebra, however, a wall of white crashed into me, sending me sprawling in the dirt. I grunted as I hit the ground, rolling on my side before springing back up to all four hooves.

I let out a low growl as I searched the area around me for my attacker. Irritatingly, there was no trace of them. There was nothing but trees and foliage for as far as I could see. How could I miss something so glaringly obvious as white in a forest?

I frowned as I dusted myself off and continued on my way back to Sweet Apple Acres, this time a slower. Big Macintosh was right, something _was_ odd about the woods, and I didn't want to be caught unawares again.

By the time I reached the edge of the woods, the sun was setting beyond the horizon, giving the clouds a pink tinge as they floated across the sky and the sky an orange glow. I decided that I should fly to Sweet Apple Acres in order to get back to Pyrite's house before it got dark. I took off and flew to the Acres, landing in front of the barn just as Big Macintosh was heading inside.

He turned as he heard me land, and I levitated the bag of blue liquid Zecora had prepared out of my saddlebag and onto his back. "There you are, one bag of whatever."

Big Macintosh nodded and took a hooful of bits from his yoke, offering them to me. "Mighty thanks, Naght Wing," he said. "Here's a little somethin' fer yer troubles. Yer done fer th' day."

I levitated the bits into my saddlebag. "No problem. When should I be here tomorrow?"

"Nice an' early. We like ta get things done all day."

I nodded and bid Big Macintosh farewell before leaping back into the air and heading back to Ponyville. Hopefully, I would be able to snack on some love before I went to sleep. This day could have gone a lot better, and I wanted to put it behind me…


	6. Parasite

I practically dove to Pyrite's doorstep, opening the door and entering as quickly as I could. Pyrite was nowhere to be seen, so I immediately headed upstairs, absentmindedly shapeshifting back into a changeling. I walked into my room and leaped up on the bed, levitating a random book up from a pile to read, and my saddlebags to the end of my bed.

Glancing at the cover, 'Beginner's Guide to Combat Magicks', I decided to start at the beginning of the book instead of a random page, as I had the night before. I casually opened the cover and flipped through the first few pages, all of which were simple drawings depicting a variety of attack spells and techniques. I had just arrived at the table of contents when I heard someling running down the hallway and stopping just outside my door.

I glanced over and saw Pyrite looking at me with wide eyes.

"Simmer down Pyrite," I remarked. "I didn't realize reading a book called for lethal suppressive force."

Pyrite didn't reply immediately, instead pointing a hoof at me. "You. Come here."

With that, she ran back down the hallway, back to her room. I looked at my book with a mixture of irritation and sadness before sighing and getting off my bed, which practically called after me as I headed to Pyrite's room.

I opened the door and was greeted by a large table littered with a humongous map, tools, a pair of saddlebags with vase-shaped clasps, and other assorted things that were strewn about in a messy, yet organized fashion. I blinked as I looked over the scene, remembering Pyrite's comment about her work.

"Does archeology really take that much time?"

"That and more."

The unicorn herself was hunched over the map, eyes flitting from place to place, hoof occasionally pointing to a point on the map that was marked with a flag, the color of which seemed to be chosen from blue, green, and red almost randomly. As I watched, she levitated a quill and notebook and began writing without so much as a sidelong glance, which I found somewhat impressive.

"So," I began, getting Pyrite's sudden and undivided attention. I was slightly unnerved by her wide-eyed look, but continued anyway with an unchanged expression. "I take it you interrupted my much-needed relaxation time for a good reason."

"Revenant," she said, talking quickly. "Planned all day. New trip. Going to Everdeep Castle."

I blinked at her rapid speech. "O…kay… What does this have to do with me?"

"Need you to come. Too many dangers alone, reason I never went. With two, much safer. Plus, you can carry spellbooks, may come in handy."

I nodded. It made sense. With two trips into the Everfree fresh in my memory, I could see why Pyrite never made the trip alone. Too many crazy archeologists and suspicious zebras. If we went together, though, we'd be a lot safer. She was probably more concerned about her health than mine, however, seeing as I was the one who had beaten her during our fight.

"Alright, so when do we leave?" I asked, resolving to get some reading done in several areas of magic to be prepared for the trip.

"Morning. Be ready."

I smirked. "Count on it."

With that, I left Pyrite to her plans for global excavation and returned to my room, hopping back onto my bed and levitating my book back in front of me. I had been reading for pleasure before, but now it was serious. I needed to be ready for whatever that forest could throw at me.

It turned out that my book really was 'beginner level', starting not with spells but actually gathering magic in an offensive fashion. I chuckled to myself as the book mentioned, as a side note, that certain species like changelings had combat magic practically born into them and thus needed much less training to use it. I nearly threw the book away at that point, but I decided that I should give it a chance, to see if the average pony could be a threat, if nothing else.

As I read on, I learned quite a bit about fighting magic. It turned out that there was a way to fine-tune magical blasts into a form that was much more efficient at the slight cost of power. Also, simply dumping power into a magical blast was not the best way to attack. Instead, starting with no more magic than a bolt, albeit outputting it constantly, and slowly upping the energy as required was a fantastic way to not only overcome your opponent, but keep yourself from tiring as well.

I read through the entirety of the first chapter, which consisted of five basic methods of attacking. A bolt, blast, the focused versions of each, and a deadly magical 'blade', which required concentration to keep up, but almost no magic past the initial casting to sustain it. After that, I decided to focus on the polar opposite of fighting: healing.

I levitated two books up to me, placing 'Beginner's Guide to Combat Magicks' down in their stead. My eyes flicked between the two tomes, 'Standard Book of Spells' and 'Advanced Healing Techniques', weighing the option of each. The former was likely to at least get me a passable use of healing magic, but the latter would be needed if there were any major injuries sustained between me and Pyrite.

After some consideration and mental debating, I decided that should learn the basics over the advanced, levitating 'Advanced Healing Techniques' into my saddlebag, in case I really did need it later. I searched through the table of contents of the 'Standard Book of Spells', flipping through the majority of the book to Chapter 9, 'Basic Healing Spells'. As before, I committed everything to memory as I read, except this time I was even more certain that I would need the information in the upcoming trip.

Unlike 'Beginner's Guide to Combat Magicks', this book had a rather lengthy and useless introduction, choosing to glorify medical ponies and the many uses of healing magic over actual material, so I skipped ahead to the actual material.

It turned out that healing magic was more complicated than fighting magic. Whereas with combat it was easy to break something, putting it back together was harder, especially if it was a living thing. Basic healing revolved around taking two parts of an injury and bringing them together, using intense magic to either cause the body to quickly heal itself, or fix and create new bonds between the injured parts. For minor injuries, such as cuts and scrapes, the body's accelerated healing wouldn't be a problem, but more severe injuries would require a second pony, or changeling in my case, to fix the damage themselves.

I hadn't gotten more than two spells in before I let out an involuntary yawn. I suddenly noticed that the light from the window next to me had faded tremendously, and that the sun was almost completely set. I had been reading for some time, and I decided that I had learned enough for the trip tomorrow.

I levitated the rest of my books into my saddlebags, the last few having to be slightly squeezed in. With one more glance out of my window, towards the sunset, I laid down and closed my eyes, almost praying for a good night's sleep.

_The flashes had returned…_

A void stretched out…

My body hung in a void of color…

Another changeling hung in front of me…

It reached out to me…

I felt it hug me…

Daddy…

I placed a hoof on its head…

**Parasite…**

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a modicum of warmth on my back. The sun was just rising over the horizon, and I could feel its rays beating down on my back. I could smell the slight scent of pony wafting down the hall from Pyrite's room. The chatter of ponies was audible even through my closed window, but even more clear was the sound of my heart beating in my ears. The texture and softness of my bed was more easily felt than normal.

But above all that was the feeling of clearness in my mind. It was something I had never felt before, something that faded with my peaceful awakening. And with it, my state of hypersensitivity.

As my senses faded to normal, I stood up and stretched my legs and back, gave my wings a quick buzz before hopping down to the floor. I shook my head once to clear the last of my drowsiness from my head before levitating my saddlebags onto my back. I grunted slightly as the full weight of all my books pressed against my sides, but it wasn't any worse than the apple baskets from the day before.

I walked out of my room and down the hall to Pyrite's room, moving at a slower pace than normal. It seemed that I may have slept _too_ well…

I knocked on Pyrite's door and was immediately greeted by the door opening and the unicorn standing right in front of me, wide awake and seemingly full of energy. She carried the same pair of saddlebags I had seen on her table last night, but hers were virtually empty as opposed to my chock full ones.

"Ready?" she asked. I smirked and quickly shifted into Night Wing.

"Now I am."

With a nod, Pyrite and I made our way down the stairs and out of her house, likely for some time, if Pyrite's quick and relatively inconspicuous hiding of the key was anything to go by.

We set out, travelling out of Ponyville and towards the Everfree on hoof. Pyrite decided on a leisurely pace, so by the time we reached the edge of the forest, the sun had finished rising over the horizon and was making its way towards the height of the sky. Pyrite and I stopped at the boundary to the Everfree, taking a brief break while Pyrite took out a map and looked it over, one of the few things she had brought with her.

"Alright, follow me," Pyrite said, rolling up her map and placing it back in her saddlebag. "Don't fall behind, and be on the lookout for any less-than-friendly wildlife."

With a shape-changing flash, I nodded in response, and we continued our journey towards the Everdeep Castle.

We entered the forest and almost immediately went off the dirt path that I had followed my two previous trips. Instead, Pyrite led us on through the thick vegetation of the Everfree, where I could barely see through the various plants, let alone keep watch for animals that might attack us.

Even though I knew that the sun was shining and it couldn't even be midday, we travelled in relative dark. It made the already hard task of keeping watch nearly impossible. The forest itself seemed like it was trying to get rid of me and Pyrite. But while I was worrying about being attacked, Pyrite just kept a determined expression and pressed on.

After what seemed like an hour, I finally began to let my guard down. We hadn't been attacked yet, and I hadn't heard so much as a peep from the local wildlife. The latter had been worrisome at first, but I figured that this part of the forest was just as creepy to animals as it was to changelings.

Finally, the thick bushes and trees began to thin out and give way to a more open part of the forest. The thinning out didn't surprise me, as the plant life was getting less vibrant the further we travelled. Trees became grayer and lost their leaves, and bushes and shrubbery were almost nonexistent. That which did exist was shriveled and dead, if not dying.

Pyrite suddenly made a sharp right and walked through one of the few relatively thick patches of shrubbery. I attempted to do the same, but I immediately bumped into Pyrite, who had stopped just past the bush. We both fell to the ground, but I was the only one to get up. I noticed that Pyrite's eyes were wide and she had staying absolutely still.

"Hey," I said, poking her a few times. "Let's go. You're the one who was so eager to-"

Pyrite's hoof shot out and plugged my mouth, preventing me from speaking. She slowly pointed behind me, and I turned around…

… to see a manticore yawning as it woke up.

A part of me was scared for a moment, but then I realized that there was no reason for me to be scared of it. To ponies, he might be even less of a monster than me. I grinned and stood as confidently as I could. I glanced down at Pyrite.

"You going to help me, or not?"

She looked at me with a shocked expression, like she couldn't believe that I was thinking about taking on a beast as big as the one in front of us. Her shock slowly turned to iron determination, likely because she came to the same reasoning I did.

"Only if I need to." She smirked slightly. "After all, a two-on-one just isn't fair. What with you being a changeling and all."

I chuckled and turned my attention back to the beast, which had by now woken up and was looking around, giving a territorial roar as it caught sight of me. I settled lower into a fighting stance, giving a challenging hiss as I did so. It was simple, the manticore was on his turf, and I was invading. So we would fight.

We both walked forwards, then started circling one another, facing each other and waiting for the other to make a move. I looked over the beast before me. It was an average, run-of-the-mill manticore, nothing to imply it had anything over its kin. The only thing worthy of note was its coat, which was just as grey and lifeless as the forest around us.

Our circling went on once, twice, three times before we locked eyes. Then the creature charged.

It covered the ground between us in seconds, leaping up into the air before coming down with a swipe of its paw. I quickly jumped to the side, buzzing up to its face and giving a retaliatory jab to its muzzle. The manticore yelped and swiped at me again, but I flew high above it, once again dodging the claws of the beast.

I let off a few bolts of magic, which sailed down towards my opponent. It quickly wove in between the blasts, missing them only slightly before it bellowed at me, realizing I was far out of its reach. I chuckled and readied more magical blasts, intent to drown the beast in a hail of fire.

Then it flew towards me.

I wondered for a split second how the manticore was able to fly on such small wings before it swiped at me once more, this time catching me off guard and sending me to the ground, a fresh cut on my side that stung as it began leak green blood. My yelp of pain was interrupted by my impact with the ground, my head banging against the forest floor and disorienting me enough to dull all my senses for a brief moment.

I sluggishly tried to roll onto my hooves, but the manticore landed on top of me, pinning my front legs to the ground and roaring in my face. It bared its fangs and its head lunged forward...

… and then a blast of amber magic impacted firmly in its side, with enough force to knock the beast off me, saving me from being devoured. My senses now refocused, I leaped to my hooves and looked at the unicorn who had just saved my life, nodding my head in gratitude and receiving a sharp nod in return.

The manticore clambered to its feet, snarling at us in thanks for the sizzling burn that now sat on its side. Remembering my studies the night before, I loosed another blast of magic at the beast as I buzzed away from it. It was only an attention-getter, and it worked, the beast's focus now solely on me. I smirked as the manticore pawed the ground in preparation for a charge, playing right into my hooves.

It charged, bellowing at me as I stood still. The creature once again jumped and came down, claws ready to tear me in half. I waited until the last second for the manticore to descend, before making a small jump forward, so that the creature landed directly over, but not on top of me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, pouring magic into my horn and willing it into shape, before a blade made of bright green magic formed around my horn. I reared up on my hind legs, driving the blade directly into the manticore's gut.

The beast's cry of pain was deafening, and my sudden driving of the blade deeper into its belly only increased the volume. The creature's flesh sizzled around the blade, and its grey coat began to redden as blood flowed and was boiled away around the blade. I ended the trickle of magic that was sustaining the blade, rolling out from under the best and delivering a strong buck to its already injured side. The manticore collapsed, whimpering in pain as its life essence slowly began to trickle out of it.

I had won.

I heard a slow stomping sound from behind me and turned to see that Pyrite was audibly signaling her approval. I bowed and grinned.

"Thanks for the save back there," I said, walking away from the dying beast. Pyrite waved a hoof dismissively. I winced as the cut on my side suddenly throbbed with pain, but I quickly remembered my reading, bringing the two halves of the cut together and feeding them magic until they knit back together, leaving no trace of injury.

"Don't mention it," she said. "I know you would've done the same for me." She then turned around and pointed deeper into the forest. "Come on, we've got a lot of ground to cover." Pyrite set off once more, leaving me behind for a moment before I realized I needed to follow her.

As we kept walking through the forest, thankfully uneventfully, I found myself hanging on to Pyrite's words.

_You would've done the same for me._

Would I have?

Pyrite had given me a place to stay, didn't expose me to pony society, gave me plenty of tomes to study, and to top it all off, saved my life. I realized that I, at the very least, should save her life in return. A part of me was reluctant to even think about sticking my neck out for a pony, of all species, but I knew I owed her. And I would repay my debt.

Nodding to myself, I refocused on the journey, determined to keep any further surprises at bay.

Before too long, Pyrite and I exited the forest, coming to the edge of a deep gorge with a rickety wooden bridge stretched across it. Across the bridge, a thick wall of fog prevented even me from seeing past the opposite side of the gorge. The deadened trees no longer blotted out the sky, giving way for the evening sun to cast its orange rays down on us.

I blinked in surprise. We had been in the forest almost an entire day? It couldn't be. A few hours, at worst. I briefly looked back at the Everfree, faint whispers of warnings from a pony and a zebra ringing through my head. With a shiver, I looked back to the bridge to find Pyrite already half way across.

Not wanting to strain the bridge any more than necessary, I quickly flew over the gorge and met up with Pyrite. I watched as her horn lit up a bright amber, before a quickly-expanding sphere of orange light came from her horn, driving away all the fog that came in contact with it. Soon, we were able to see unimpeded, and were greeted by an impressive, but slightly deterring sight.

The Everdeep Castle, as Pyrite had called it, sat near another edge of the Everfree forest, but was relatively untouched by the forest itself. Its crumbling walls and towers made it clear that it was rotting away with time, which made me suddenly very aware of the importance of Pyrite's work. She wasn't just collecting artifacts, she was saving them for other ponies to get a glimpse of what we were seeing.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with that.

A dome of green magic sat around the castle, making it completely inaccessible to outsiders. Pyrite stomped her hooves in frustration, but instead of being agitated, I quickly began thinking of a work-around.

From a few brief asides that I had read in the 'Standard Book of Spells', I knew that barriers were effectively just large locks, blunt, simple, and severely draining, but incredibly strong and resistant to physical and magical forces. If one could cast a proper barrier spell, it would take an army to breach it.

An army, or one changeling who knew its way around locks.

"I've got an idea," I said, immediately catching Pyrite's full attention. "From what I've read, barriers are just large, simple locks." I looked at her and smiled. "And can you guess who read up on lock-picking spells?"

Pyrite's eyes lit up, and she gestured to the barrier. "If you think you can open the barrier, go ahead."

I nodded and walked up to the green wall, placing a hoof on it and closing my eyes, concentrating on the magical feel of the barrier. It was a simple lock, but not a weak one. A simple opening spell wouldn't work. I would have to use a combination of opening magic and a focused blast to carve to hole in the barrier.

I began drawing on my magic, trying to prepare and merge two spells into one. It was easier said than done however, as combining two entirely different kinds of magic was like trying to fit a square into a circle. Each spell tried to overtake the other, but I needed a perfect balance. I stood where I was for some time, trying to mesh the two spells in the way I needed to. I briefly spared some thought to think of how much easier the process would have been if I had been a unicorn.

Once I was confident I had gotten my 'breaching' spell prepared, I cast it on the barrier. A thin green beam shot out of my horn and impacted on the barrier, slowly tearing open a hole in the barrier. Pyrite immediately dashed through the hole, but I remained rooted in place, the spell requiring almost every bit of my focus to keep open. I couldn't so much as try to take a step without the hole wavering and closing almost instantaneously, before I refocused and kept it open.

"Coming?" Pyrite asked, completely oblivious to the difficulty of the task I was performing.

"Can't… spell… needs… focus…" I managed to say those few words, but even speaking made the spell waver dangerously. Pyrite looked down in thought for a moment before speaking again.

"Then let me take over," she said. I looked at her with as best a confused face as I could manage. "You've already cast the spell, so all I need to do is keep it powered long enough for you to slip through."

What slight bit of me not devoted to the breaching spell panicked. What if Pyrite couldn't, or didn't, keep the spell up? Could she keep the barrier open long enough for me to slip through?

Then, in true Pyrite fashion, she spoke up. "Revenant."

I looked at her, her horn glowing amber.

"Trust me."

I felt another force come in contact with my magic. It was weaker than both me and the barrier, so I knew it was Pyrite. Her magic began slipping into the breaching spell, feeding it the energy and balance it needed to stay up. My magic was still largely in control however, and didn't allow Pyrite to fully take on the spell.

Again my doubts came forward. Could I, a changeling, trust her, a pony? I struggled briefly for a moment, but Pyrite's words came back to me.

_Trust me_

I let go of the spell.

I leaped forward.

And I landed on the other side in one piece.

With a grunt, Pyrite released the spell, the barrier flowing back together in the blink of an eye. She staggered backwards and panted lightly, and I slowly got up off the ground. We looked at each other, and I bowed my head in thanks. I trusted Pyrite, and she hadn't let me down. I wouldn't forget that.

Once we had caught our breath, Pyrite and I made our way towards the crumbling front doors of the castle. I took the lead, pushing open the large wooden door, which creaked in protest. Inside, a large hall stretched on, support pillars and stone carvings worn away. A large fountain was in the middle of the room, a pool of water sitting still at its base, and several pedestals stood empty. The roof was open, letting us see out of the castle and stare the green barrier that lay overhead, blocking out the orange evening sky.

Though despite the amazing view of the ancient castle, there were several things that caught our attention.

Several ponies, in fact, each held against a pillar by thick chains and suspended over empty wooden barrels. I guessed that these ponies were the ones that had gone missing. They ran the gamut from stallion to mare, unicorn to earth pony, though they all shared one thing in common.

They were all grey.

Normally vibrant and colorful manes and coats were grey as ash, and the ponies themselves gave no indication of being alive other than the occasional moan of sniffle. Pyrite and I were both put off by the sight of hanging ponies, so we began moving to help them down when a loud buzzing filled the air.

We looked towards the source, which appeared to be the fountain. As we watched, the air above the top pedestal shimmered and warped, before slowly turning a bright white as a pony-like form faded into view. Pyrite let out a gasp.

The changeling opened its eyes and looked at us, grinning.

It was almost the polar opposite of me. Its carapace wasn't grey, like a normal changeling, but snow white. Its eyes were a sky blue, lighter than most of our species. A large, twisted horn reminiscent of a changeling queen sat on top of its head, but it appeared to be at a cost, as its wings were only stubs of what they should have been, useless for flight and good only for buzzing.

"Welcome…" the changeling hissed, bowing politely. "Welcome to my humble castle, your highness."

Pyrite and I looked at each other in confusion. She gestured at me, but I shrugged. To the best of my knowledge, I wasn't any more royal than she was.

"Who? Pyrite?" I asked, getting a sharp laugh from the changeling in return.

"Hahaha, of course not!" It chuckled, finally leaping down from its place atop the fountain to approach me. "I was talking to you, your majesty." Another bow. "I am Parasite."

"I'm no king," I said, waving dismissively. "Never was, never will be."

Parasite looked up, shock written on his face. "You… you've forgotten?"

"There's nothing to forget!" I shouted. "Now let those ponies go!"

Parasite was taken aback for a moment, but he rose from his bow and walked back to his fountain, placing his hooves on the rim and gazing into the water.

"I can't do that," he said. "Their lives are meaningless. They will only be food for our king." He glanced back at me. "Who I suppose isn't you. So leave, now."

"Not without those ponies!" Pyrite demanded, stomping a hoof down for emphasis. "Let them go!"

"Don't force me to hurt you, pony!" Parasite spat, whirling around and glaring at Pyrite with pure hatred in his eyes. "I will not hurt my kin, but I only spare you because you helped him!" He jabbed a hoof at me before narrowing his eyes further. "Your kind has been given the genocide order by the king himself, and you're lucky that the queen holds as much sway over him as she does! If not for her, I would carry out the demand, even without a royal order!"

"Just let them go," I said, again moving to let a pony down from their bonds. Parasite hiss quickly refocused me onto him as his horn lit up with a green glow.

"I don't care what your rank is, Elite!" He said. "I will not allow you to interfere with my mission! I have been given an assignment from the queen herself! And you will! Not! Stop me!"

I settled into a fighting stance, Pyrite doing the same as our horns lit up with magic.

"Then we'll fight you for them," I stated.

Parasite sneered, settling into a stance of his own. "I will not hurt you, brother. But your companion… I have no problems with."

With that, Pyrite and I fired twin blasts of magic at Parasite. He jumped over them and fired a retaliatory beam at Pyrite, who rolled to the side to avoid it.

I quickly ran towards Parasite, intent on making the most of both his unwillingness to hurt me and his focus on Pyrite. I made a quick jab at his head, but he ducked underneath my strike and firmly, but lightly, shoved me away with a wall of magic. True to what he said, Parasite's rebuttal didn't hurt me at all, but sent me flying away from him, slightly winded.

I recovered my breath and got back up, watching for an opening as Parasite fired beam after beam of deadly green magic at Pyrite, who occasionally tossed off an easily dodged amber bolt. Pyrite finally managed to get some distance between the two of them, and I buzzed forward, aiming to tackle Parasite and then finish him off quickly.

He saw me coming however, and leaped to the side as I went sailing past him. I quickly turned around and flew back towards the white changeling, who was too occupied firing at Pyrite again to notice me flying towards him.

I crashed directly into Parasite's back, sending him sprawling on the ground. I let out a triumphant laugh, but he got back on his hooves and hissed at me.

"I had hoped I wouldn't have to hurt you, brother, but you leave me no choice!"

Parasite charged towards me as I landed, a blade similar to the one I had formed while fighting the manticore, except much longer and wider, forming around his horn. I formed my own blade in response, ready to engage him in a full-on swordfight, but an amber bolt of magic crashing into Parasite's side and sending him flying into a pillar removed that idea from my mind.

The white changeling hissed in pain as he stood up, baring his fangs and looking at the both of us with an expression of hot fury.

"Curs!" he shouted, horn lighting up with twin layers of magic. "Now we fight on MY terms!"

With a blinding green flash, all three of us found ourselves in a much smaller room, circular, torch-lit, and with little room to maneuver. Before Pyrite or I had properly gathered our senses, Parasite was already on the offensive.

I felt a hoof collide solidly with my head, knocking me to the floor. A surprisingly hard kick to my side sent me sailing into a wall, and I slid down unceremoniously. My vision swam as I got up, but I was able to make out Parasite attacking Pyrite with a whip-like spell. A yelp signaled that she had been hit, and she stopped just long enough for the whip to wrap around her torso and yank her up in the air. Parasite smacked her against opposite sides of the room's wall before slamming her down to the ground, a sickening cracking announcing some kind of broken bone. Pyrite lay on the floor, virtually unmoving as the whip vanished and the white changeling slowly approached her.

"Don't worry, little pony," he said, his horn's aura glowing brighter and brighter. "It'll be quick, and there won't even be ashes." Parasite raised his head high as he continued charging magic, obviously intending to fulfill his threat.

_No._

I wouldn't let him kill her. I owed her, and now was the time to pay my debt.

_Control…_

On pure instinct, I stood up and ran at Parasite, not a single conscious thought in my mind. I closed the gap between us, and the changeling turned just enough to see me charging at him, a yell resounding in the circular room.

Our horns met, and the world faded away.

Like all my dreams before, I found myself floating in a void. But unlike all my dreams, I found I had complete control over my body. I looked around myself, wondering if I had died, and this was the afterlife.

Suddenly, a bright white glow came from behind me. I turned around to see what could only be described as a pile of white slime hovering not too far away from me. Slowly, it grew some vague head-like shape, tortured and melted pony-like features imprinted on it.

And like so many times before, I went from having no idea what I was looking at, to knowing exactly what it was.

I was staring at Parasite's essence.

Not his soul, but rather his identity. Who he was, what he wanted, and all of his hopes, dreams, and fears.

_Control…_

He wouldn't have an identity much longer.

I charged at the slime, running on nothing. I pulled back a hoof for a punch, but the slime remained immobile. My hoof flew forwards, but the Parasite's essence stayed still. My hoof made contact with the slime.

Only then did the slime react.

Not with words, but with thoughts. I felt the full weight of Parasite's identity crash down on me, swarming my head with his thoughts and memories. I began to lose myself amidst them…

_Flash…_

A sudden, sharp pain ripped me from unconsciousness. I let out a yelp as I scrambled to get up, holding the top of my throbbing head. The sound of a cawing crow burst through the air, and I opened my eyes to look for the bird.

Flash…

Parasite opened his eyes for the first time. His parents, a mage and a drone of high standing, stood over him, faces beaming with pride as they beheld their firstborn…

Flash…

"Uh huh. And how do I know this isn't a trap?" Pyrite sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes.  
"If I wanted you found, would I have reminded you to shapeshift? Would I have made a cover story for you?"

Flash…

"Again!" The instructor called. Parasite was the only one who had difficulty with flying. All the other drones could outfly arguably some pegasi. But not me… he wasn't good enough…

Flash…

"I suppose you can prove that?" Parasite asked, glaring at it. "What are you, her pet lizard?"

Flash…

I stood before the king and queen, bowing in submission as was proper. The king was silent as the queen spoke into his ear, whispering things I couldn't hear. Parasite opened one eye to catch them suddenly nuzzling one another affectionately. He almost leaped at the chance to feed on their love, but I knew that there would be severe consequences.

Flash…

Big Macintosh nodded and opened the door to the barn, going inside for moment before coming back out with two baskets held together by a pair of straps that the held in his teeth. He placed the buckets on my back, and I grimaced as they crushed my wings to Parasite's sides.

"Now," he began. "Yer job is ta go out there inta th' orchard, and buck them apple trees till them apples fall inta yer bucket. Then bring 'em back here an' get yerself another set a' buckets. Wash, rinse, repeat."

Flash…

The queen had been in fury for days. Noling had survived her wrath once incurred, and the ponies would be no different. Parasite knew that they would pay dearly for taking her king from her. And I was going to be instrumental in that process.

"Your mission, Parasite, is to…"

Flash…

I was utterly unable to break free of Parasite's memories. The line between him and me grew blurrier and blurrier…

"I will consume you…"

The sound of Parasite's voice brought me back into focus, all of his memories fading away.

"I will turn your bodies to FOOD."

I growled, about the only resistance I could muster.

"All of the ponies in this wretched town will be sacrifice for our king…"

"… it will be glorious…"

I began squirming in my mental bonds, trying to break free of Parasite's influence.

"…when my soul is devoured by the king…"

My hooves under my control again, I seized the slime, finding something solid buried within it.

"…when I'm ripped apart and my screams become music…"

I grabbed hold of whatever was inside the slime, forcing my will onto it. One thought, one command.

"STOP."

Everything went black.

I struggled back to my hooves as I regained consciousness, snippets of memories flashing across my vision. I couldn't tell which were mine, and which were Parasite's. But I immediately became too distracted to bother sorting them out.

I opened my eyes, suddenly disoriented by the sight of the room from two different angles. I heard panting coming from all different directions, and my body felt awkward but familiar at the same time.

"What happened?" I asked aloud, recoiling in shock as I heard Parasite say the exact same thing, at the exact same moment. I quickly looked around for him, snarling as soon as I caught sight of… myself?

Half of my sight was locked onto Parasite, but the other half was looking at me, like I had put half of a mirror between us. I took a step back, and Parasite did the same. I bared my fangs, and the white changeling mirrored my move exactly.

I realized what was going on. Somehow, I had gained control of Parasite's body. Had it been that lucid daydream? It must have been, but that would have meant it wasn't a dream, but that I had, by some reflexive instinct, entered Parasite's mind and wrested control of his body from him.

No sooner than I had realized the reality of the situation, than I felt Parasite's mind returning to consciousness. He began struggling against my will, trying to regain control of himself. I fought back, the struggle to keep him under my hoof nowhere near as difficult as the struggle to balance my breaching spell.

Eventually his fits or resistance ceased, replaced with an overwhelming joy that I fed on without a second thought. I had become acutely aware of how exhausted I was, slightly surprised that I hadn't noticed before but excited that I had prey that was so willing to be feasted on.

Even as I continued to consume Parasite's joy, the emotion only seemed to increase in size. I let out a sigh from both our bodies as I felt my magic and energy slowly return from the sheer amount of positive emotion being absorbed.

Prey…

_Food…_

I stopped feeding faster than I could blink.

I was playing right into his hooves. I had felt Parasite's desire to be consumed before, but only now did I realize how much this 'king' meant to him. It was an obsession so deep, it projected Parasite's dreams onto me and made them my desires.

And all because I had done that… mind control.

I felt myself reaching back for Parasite's joy, deeper instincts overcoming my mind and making it feel _good_ to feed. I wrestled between forcing my instincts back down and keeping Parasite at bay. The strain began mounting, drowning out all my thoughts, requiring every shred of focus I could spare until I only had one thought.

_STOP._

Everything did.

Parasite's mind, sight, hearing, and body were severed from my mind. All the oddness I had felt controlling his form were gone, replaced with familiarity of being ME. My vision was through my own two eyes once more, and I looked at Parasite. Or rather, what had once been Parasite.

His body laid on the floor, eyes grey and empty. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and a small trail of green changeling blood flowed out of his mouth and nose. I waited for him to move, but nothing happened. Not even a twitch.

I had killed the white changeling with only a thought.

And that scared me.

Not the act itself, no. That had been a necessity. Rather, it was the ease of which I had done so. I had invaded someling else's mind and wrested their body from them, then killed them with no more effort than a wave of my hoof.

And as I looked over Parasite's body once more, the hunger I had felt, _his_ hunger, surged through me for a brief moment. That was another thing that terrified me. I had taken a piece of a monster… and made it a piece of me. And there was nothing I could do about it.

I closed my eyes and looked away from the dead changeling, remembering what had triggered my action in the first place. Pyrite.

And she needed help.

I dashed over to her and placed a hoof on her neck, relieved when I felt a pulse. I lightly slapped Pyrite on the cheek a few times to wake her up. She slowly came back to consciousness, groaning and whimpering in pain, unsurprising considering the number I… Parasite did on her.

"Easy now," I said softly, helping her up and wrapping a leg around my shoulder like I had done only two days ago. "We're getting out of here."

Pyrite's only response was a nod.

A quick look around brought a wooden door to my attention. I opened it with magic, slowly helping Pyrite walk out of the room so as not to injure her any further. Once outside Parasite's new tomb, I looked around the new room that we found ourselves in.

It wasn't as large as the hall that we had first gone into upon entering the castle proper, but it was similar in design, scale and décor being the only true differences. Pillars went from dirt floor to stone ceiling, simplistic and looking more like stalagmites in a cave. A chandelier hung from the ceiling to cast a modicum of light into the room, which would have been pitch black otherwise. Slabs of stone with flat tops were strewn about, most covered with glass tubes and beakers that were suspended over flames or kept on racks. A staircase rose out of sight at the far end of the room.

Pyrite pulled me towards one of the tables near the left wall, littered with beakers. We slowly walked over to it, and Pyrite let go of me to grab an open bottle of red liquid, quickly chugging the contents down. An amber glow came from her abdomen, and a loud crack sounded. Pyrite placed the container back on the lab and looked at me with a smile.

"Alchemy," she said. "I don't think he'll be missing that healing potion."

I raised an eyebrow. "That was strangely convenient."

Pyrite shrugged, obviously not going to argue with luck. We turned to leave when a moan sounded through the room. Both Pyrite and I readied our magic, our horns lighting up and illuminating the dark that clung to the edge of the room. Another stone slab greeted us, except this one had a pony chained to it.

Pyrite and I kept our horns lit up so we could see clearly, walking over to the pony that weakly tossed its limbs about. As I got closer to it, I saw it was a unicorn mare. Her body was almost completely greyed out, like the ponies Pyrite and I had seen upon first entering the castle. However, there was just enough color left to identify her as once having been blue-coated, with a light blue and white mane and tail. Violet eyes held only the slightest bit of emotion, and a cutie mark of a wand and stars implied magical talent now useless.

I looked her over a few times, feeling her life slowly but surely draining away. Her emotions had been stolen from her, by Parasite no doubt. I could feel her emptiness, the monstrous hunger I had taken turning its figurative nose up at the pony that was imprisoned in this lair.

"Let's go," I said, turning and walking towards the stairs at the end of the room. "There's nothing we can do. She's too far gone."

Pyrite gave one last look at the pony, pity visible on her features. "If you say so."

We walked up the stairs, evenly placed torches lighting our way. We emerged from Parasite's lair, coming up into the original hall we had entered. A look around showed that all of the ponies had disappeared, and the barrels underneath them were filled with rainbow-colored liquid. Out of curiosity, I went over to one of the barrels and sniffed. It smelled of something only a changeling could sense.

Pure emotion.

I didn't know how Parasite had gotten ahold of that much raw emotion, but I had a guess that I hoped wasn't true. With a shiver to myself, partly out of uneasiness, partly out of disgust, and partly out of an unbidden hunger, I signaled for Pyrite to follow me.

The sooner we were back in Ponyville, the better.


	7. Betrayal

Unsurprisingly, when Pyrite and I next exited the Everfree forest, we seemed to have missed a good half of a day, as the sun was high in the sky, heralding the middle of a cycle that we had skipped to. We stopped briefly for Pyrite to eat a bite or two from some food she had packed in her saddlebags, which left to my thoughts while she did so.

Through the entire trip back through the Everfree, I had felt Parasite's hunger at the edge of my mind, and in the depths of my stomach. It wasn't anywhere near as strong as I had felt when it had been part of its previous owner, but that was almost certainly due to the effort I had put into suppressing it. It had apparently taken the hint that I didn't want it, and that it wasn't a part of me. But it stayed at the precipice of my conscious, lurking and waiting like the albino changeling I had taken it from.

I briefly glanced at Pyrite and was unable to suppress a slight rising of my lip and an almost inaudible snarl. I shook my head and growled to myself, pushing back ravenous urges that I was sure would only grow worse once we reached Ponyville.

Pyrite finished her food in short order, and we continued back home in silence. Neither of us were eager to discuss what we had seen or experienced in the Everdeep Castle, not to mention that Pyrite was likely upset that the entire trip had been a veritable waste of time, as we were returning empty-hooved.

We arrived in Ponyville without fanfare, the ponies that milled about unaware that one of their own and a changeling hiding among them had just ended a threat to their lives before it could touch any of them.

Or… most of them.

As we came to Pyrite's house, a seven-pony group stood outside to meet us. Rather, six ponies, and one dragon.

The seven wore various expressions of anger and hatred, except for a vanilla-colored pegasus that was cowering behind her compatriots. I recognized a few of the ponies from my previous experience in Ponyville: Applejack, whose leg was now fully healed and free of bandages, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and the small dragon who I was still convinced was an overgrown lizard. Three other ponies were complete strangers to me.

The first was a blue pegasus with a rainbow-like mane and tail, which I found odd even for a pony. The second was a white unicorn that stuck out like a gem among rocks, but several repulsive stenches drifted off of her, the foremost of which was undoubtedly gratuitous amounts of perfume. Last was the cowering pegasus, which made me snicker despite the obvious tension. The contrast was simply too strange to not be funny.

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward and spoke. "Night Wing," she began, sounding like she was winding up for a speech. "After your harsh rebuttal, I had my doubts as to whether I justly suspected you of being a changeling. But after meeting with my friends, I have come to an irrefutable truth." She pointed a hoof at me. "All evidence points to it: you are a changeling! For crimes against Equestria and her ponies, and by the authority invested in me by Princess Celestia herself, I hereby place you under arrest!"

Pyrite and I looked at each other for a moment, blank and bored expressions quickly turning to snickers and cackles. The group of ponies stood as they were, content to simply wait until we replied.

Pyrite recovered first, and stepped towards Twilight, a serious expression replacing her smile. "And exactly what evidence do you have?"

Sparkle motioned to her friends. Applejack stepped next to her, a look of disgust written on her face.

"Ah saw ya doin yer little shapeshiftin' thing when you were buckin' apples," she said. I rolled my eyes, still smiling.

"Trick of the light," I said, waving my hoof in dismissal. I noticed a few ponies around us were coming closer to watch the confrontation. I grinned to myself. This would be a perfect opportunity to turn Ponyville against Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

Next, the cowering pegasus stepped out to inch forward, only slightly looking at me from underneath her pink mane. She couldn't even make eye contact.

"Um, I saw you turn into a changeling, just outside the forest…I didn't mean to spy on you, but, oh…"She covered her head with her hooves. "Pleasedonthurtme!"

At this, I felt a slight bit of sympathy. "So now what, Sparkle, you force timid pegasi to tattle for you?" I asked, smirking. Pyrite flashed me a grin of her own.

The rainbow-maned pegasus flew over the other ponies and came right up to me. "Don't pick on my friends, you stupid bug!" she shouted. "Fluttershy told us you turned into a black changeling, and I'm pretty sure I saw you fighting _her_!" She pointed her hoof at Pyrite, who took a step back in surprise.

"Wha…what?" She asked in surprise. "I never fought Night Wing!"

Twilight smiled confidently and pointed to her. "Ah-ha! Changelings can erase and change memories! He altered your memory to think he was a friend!"

I frowned. Twilight was turning this situation around, fast. Neither I nor Pyrite had an immediate response to her accusation. I had to be careful to keep my cover.

Next, the white unicorn came forward. Her head was turned slightly upwards, trying to maintain an image of sophistication and nobility. "While you may be able to alter the minds of pony-folk, you cannot alter records. I inquired a few associates, and you are not registered in any town or city in Equestria. And I imagine an alicorn would have some position of importance, so I find this to be quite incriminating."

Again, Pyrite and I failed to come up with a response. I gritted my teeth in frustration, an act that didn't go unnoticed by Twilight, who smiled as though she had already turned Ponyville against me. I brief look around revealed that there was a crowd gathering, watching as Twilight and her friends tried to expose me.

Pinkie Pie approached me, but rather than walk, her entire body shook as she vibrated for no apparent reason. I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but everyling else had expressions of shock and awe. Pyrite gave me a look that spoke volumes about how bad the situation was becoming. I gritted my teeth.

"None of that proves anything," I said. "All I've heard so far is 'I saw', and 'I heard'. And I don't even know what Pinkie's shaking was supposed to accomplish. You've got nothing on me. Accept it. I'm not a changeling."

I smirked as the townsponies muttered amongst themselves, sharing doubts and questions. Twilight glared at me. Her horn lit up, but I knew she wouldn't dare atta-

A purple beam of magic shot out from her horn and went over my entire body, leaving a warm tingling and slight dizziness in its wake. A chorus of gasps sounded around me, coming from every pony except those in Twilight's gang.

"Revenant…" Pyrite whispered, so softly only I could hear her. I looked down at myself, in complete shock.

My disguise had vanished, exposing me for what I really was. Ponies around me bore expressions of pure shock, Pyrite included. I looked at her in desperation. I trusted her to get me out of this. She had to.

"Pyrite…" I whispered pleadingly. "Let's get out of here…"

The mare's eyes looked me over once, twice. Her lower lip trembled. I could see a tear form at the corner of her eye.

"I…" A feeling of dread came over me. I knew what was next, but I desperately hoped she wouldn't choose…

"I'm sorry…"

She chose them.

Her kind.

Over me.

Her… friend.

Pyrite sent a bolt of amber magic at me, which I easily dodged. All of my panic vanished, anger replaced the void. I snarled and lunged at Pyrite, but another bolt of purple magic crashed into my side, sending me into the crowd of townsponies, who quickly went into panic and scrambled away from me. The hunger inside me retched at their terror and hate, becoming more noticeable now that I was occupied.

I growled and stood back up, only to be greeted by a charging Applejack. She slammed into me and carried me quite a ways until she crushed me between her body and the equally unyielding side of a house. I felt the air being driven from my lungs on impact, followed by a short relief of pressure before a solid buck connected with my side, sending me into another wall. Miraculously, there was no snapping sound from my ribs, so I assumed nothing was broken.

I struggled to get up, coming face-to-face with the white unicorn, who held a thin blade suspended in a light blue aura by her side. I chuckled despite the situation. "I didn't think ponies used weapons."

The unicorn huffed and twirled the blade. "It's a rapier, I'll have you know. And dueling is particularly trendy this year."

I immediately formed a blade of magic from my horn, suddenly extremely conscious of my dwindling magic reserves. It wasn't a problem yet, but it could soon be.

With only a moment's pause, I charged at the unicorn. I brought my blade in a downwards swipe that she parried off to the side, following up with a thrust that I stepped away from. I tried another swipe, this time horizontal, but the unicorn' blade levitated over the concentrated magic and immediately stabbed downwards, cutting a gash on my side that disrupted my focus enough for my blade to flicker and vanish. I hissed in pain and quickly healed the wound, severed chitin brought together and repaired in a moment.

Ignoring her rapier, I lunged at the mare and punched her in the jaw, sending her sprawling to the ground, unconscious. I hissed triumphantly, but a cry of anger refocused my attention. The pegasus, Fluttershy? Fluttershy was glaring at me, having gone from cowardice to rage in a split second. We locked eyes, and I immediately felt her mind crash against mine. It was like what I had done to Parasite, except I was on the losing end, and there were no memories meshed and confused.

Fluttershy drew nearer, her mouth shouting scoldings that I didn't hear, but shrank from all the same. But as she came closer, I could feel her concern for her friends underneath her anger. Concern and caring that Parasite's hunger leaped at, breaking through the hold the pegasus had on me. I flew towards Fluttershy, fully aware of the act but unable to control it.

For the third time, something connected with my ribs to send me flying away, the only difference being that I was sent careening into a strange blue tube, my head becoming firmly stuck inside. I growled and tried to extract myself, but it was no use. I stood where I was for a moment, humiliated.

I suddenly heard what faintly sounded like Pinkie Pie's voice, just before a torrent of paper impacted on my face and sent me flying into the sky, spinning and cursing as I clutched my face in pain.

My wings buzzed into action, allowing me a moment to get my bearings. My entire situation had gone from bad to worse. I was being bested by six _ponies_. They weren't even creatures that would actually be a threat. I needed to get away from Ponyville, away from them, before things got any worse.

I quickly turned and sped towards the Everfree, my wings buzzing as fast as they could. I needed to get back to the Everdeep Castle. There, I could hopefully lay low until the ponies lowered their guard and I could infiltrate them again. But however fast I got there wouldn't be fast enough.

Movement at the edge of my vision caught my attention. I looked next to me to see the rainbow-maned pegasus flying next to me. She glared at me and gritted her teeth before turning and slamming into me with enough force to knock me off course, away from the Everfree. I gritted my teeth and returned the gesture, but the pegasus darting upwards, letting me sail underneath her. She immediately descended, knocking me head-over-hooves to the ground as I tried and failed to stay level and airborne.

What buzzing my wings did managed to slow me descent to the point where it wasn't that painful, but it still knocked the wind out of me for the second time that day. The pegasus came straight down towards me, and I only just avoided her hooves by rolling away as she impacted the ground. I sprung up and prepared a magic bolt, but my attention was refocused by an amethyst blast of magic that I barely ducked under.

I turned to see Twilight and her other friends approaching. The six of them formed a circle around me, cutting off any escape route. I growled and cursed. I was trapped.

The six ponies slowly came towards me, all of them determined to rid the world of one more changeling.

Thinking quickly, I buzzed into the air, just long enough to get over the circle of multi-colored doom, before touching back down and running with every ounce of speed I could muster. Two ponies, Applejack and the rainbow-maned pegasus, broke off from the circle and came after me.

Even with the edge being a changeling gave to my running speed, the two were gaining on me. The edge of the Everfree was in sight, however, and I was almost home free. I pushed my legs to move faster, desperately trying to get away from the pair of pursuers. I spared a glance behind me to see them speeding up even as I did, apparently realizing where I was going and trying to stop me from getting there.

Applejack quickly came up directly behind me, attempting one last lunge to try and catch me. I buzzed my wings, which gave me just enough of a boost to evade her. As soon as she had failed, the pegasus came down towards me and tried the same, but I slowed down for a split second, allowing her to over-shoot me and crash into the ground. Quickly accelerating to full speed once more, I cleared the last stretch to the Everfree, disappearing into the foliage and heading towards the Everdeep Castle as fast as I could.

I kept running until I entered the castle, slowing to a trot before stumbling and collapsing onto the floor of the entry hall, panting as I tried to recover from my frantic running. My mind was a jumble, and I couldn't think straight. I laid on the floor for some time, not really caring how long I was there for.

Once my chest stopped heaving and my thoughts came back into focus, I stood up somewhat shakily and shook my head.

I couldn't believe it. Pyrite had turned me in… and for what? I gritted my teeth and became suddenly aware of a weight on my back. I slid the saddlebags on my back off and onto the floor. I frowned as I looked them over. Pyrite… that pony had given them to me, along with the spellbooks inside. Even if she was gone, I would make use of her gifts.

Deciding that my few belongings would be safe where they were, sitting next to one of the emotion-filled barrels, I decided to search m-Parasite's lair once more. Pyrite had found a healing potion previously, and I could almost say for certain that there would be some other useful things down there.

Heading down the stairs to Parasite's lair, I looked around at the slabs of stone, trying to identify any more healing potions before I started looking more thoroughly. Sighing, I buzzed over to a random slab and started looking at the numerous racks of vials and beakers that rested on it. They were all colored differently, and even in the dim light provided by the chandelier, which had only grown dimmer since… she and I had last been down here, I could tell that no two were the same.

I slowly drifted from slab to slab, trying to determine which potions I should take. I frowned once I realized that _Pyrite_ had left me in the dark once more. I turned to leave when a feeble whimper cut through the air. I turned to look at the one slab I had deliberately ignored.

As if sensing my attention, the mare chained to the stone whimpered some more, weakly trying for what was likely the umpteenth time to shake off her shackles. I walked over to her, once more assessing her condition. Her head rolled to look at me once I was close enough. Unfocused eyes watered and the mare's lower lip trembled. Even without feeling what was left of her emotions, I could tell she was scared, hopeless.

I looked the unicorn over, an idea coming to my head. She had been drained of her emotions, which made her almost as good as dead, but the barrels just above us held those very same things in them. It could almost be considered cannibalism, and I chuckled darkly at the thought. If that was the price this mare would have to pay to live, I was sure she wouldn't mind.

Creating another horn-blade, I touched the magical edge to each of the chains, cutting through them without much effort. I levitated the unicorn onto my back, shifting her around none-too-gently, before heading back up the stairs, making sure to grab an empty vial on my way out.

Once we were back in the main hall, I practically flung the unicorn off my back, her limp form flopping to a halt just short of one of the barrels. I dipped the vial I had taken into the barrel, plunging it in before quickly drawing it back out, noting how the rainbow-like liquid inside was thick and viscous. I looked the vial over for a moment before shrugging and taking a small swig of the liquid.

It was tasteless, yet I felt a measure of energy come to me from it. It wasn't like taking in love and friendship from ponies, there was no comparison in the strength it gave me. But it would do for the time being.

Refilling the vial, I brought it to the mare's lips, levitating her head so the liquid would flow down her throat and she wouldn't choke. I was going to use her, and a tool was no use broken. I waited for a moment before reviling the vial again and pouring the contents into her mouth once more. I repeated the process about ten times before I saw results.

The unicorn's greyed-out mane and coat slowly bloomed with color, breathing life into an almost-dead pony. Her coat became much more vibrant, and even her mane gained a bit of blue to pair with the white that emerged from the grey. Her now somewhat-lively violet eyes closed as she fell asleep, the floor we were on likely much more comfortable than the stone she had been laying on for who knew how long.

Snarling slightly at the sight of the mare's almost peaceful expression, I walked away from her and out of the castle. Once she woke up, I would have to make sure she didn't get any ideas. I didn't need any more ponies to make trouble for me. If the one who I had trusted, and I thought trusted me back, had turned on me, I could only imagine what the one I had 'saved' would do. I couldn't trust anyling.

I couldn't trust anyling…

I felt a slight throbbing in my head. Words and sounds flowed into my mind, and before long I felt my wings and hooves shapeshift of their own accord. I looked down to see my hooves… unchanged. The same applied to my wings as I turned my head to look at them. I was confused for a moment, before the throbbing in my head returned and I felt my wings and hooves move by themselves. But instead of the usual buzzing or clopping, out came… music.

And before I knew it, I began to sing.

**"It's getting pointless…"**

Trying to keep up this game…

I bowed my head as I remembered walking around Ponyville as Night Wing. All the ponies had been so… accepting.

**"Broken friendships…"**

**"Watching pleasure turn to pain…"**

I remembered how that acceptance turned into fear and hatred when they found out what I really was.

**"All around me…"**

**"Lines are being drawn between…"**

I remembered how Pyrite and I were… friends…

**"Can I believe them?"**

**"I thought that we were a team…"**

I remembered how quickly she turned on me.

**"I thought that there was something good to hold on to…"**

**"One simple thing that kept me hanging on, hanging on…"**

I remembered the trust we had… how we beat Parasite with that trust.

**"They're out to break me down, to end my life, to kill my kind…"**

**"My days of friendship are gone!"**

I remembered how that trust was tossed away like it was nothing.

**"Now my life has turned to fear,"**

**"And it's pretty goddam clear,"**

**"That I know I can't trust anyling now!"**

I couldn't trust anyling now.

**"I thought she helped me…"**

**"I thought she gave me everything…"**

Pyrite gave me a home… books…

**But she betrayed me…**

**"Whatever bitter end to bring…"**

…And then took away the one thing everyling else gave: acceptance.

**"It got harder…"**

**"She turned me in for her needs…"**

She wanted to be a hero… 'Savior of Ponyville', I bet…

**"Wake the buck up…"**

**"I was damn near on my knees!"**

I had only gotten lucky when I escaped.

**"I thought that there would be more to life than all my lies…"**

**"That place where I wasn't all alone, all alone…"**

And for a time… I had found it.

**"But now I look around at what I've learned, to face the truth…"**

**"I know I'll never find a home!"**

I would have to wander Equestria for food soon enough… I wouldn't be what Parasite was and kill ponies for food…

**"Now the smiles have turned to tears, and it's pretty goddam clear…"**

**"I know I can't trust anyling now!**"

Noling at all.

I stood outside the castle for a long while, the words of the song running through my head over and over again. I watched the sun as it traveled across the sky, only heading back into the castle when the moon began its own journey in the path of the sun.

I spared a glance at the still-sleeping unicorn as I came inside, disgust and hurt boiling up within me. Settling down across the room from her, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, all too eager to put the day behind me.


	8. Aftershock

_White._

Pure white.

It was everywhere. It was the walls, the ceiling, the invisible floor.

I rose from the wooden chair I was sitting in. I rose on two legs, not four.

I looked at myself. Strange textures ran over me, each with a different feel to it. Textures that came with odd fabrics. One stretched from my waist, down my lower legs to my… ankles. Another covered my torso and chest, and some of my upper le… arms. Yet another covered the rest of my arms to my… wrists.

This strange body… it was so unfamiliar, yet it moved as if it had been my only one. I raised my arm to see my HAND.

The word resounded in my mind with unquestionable authority. The white set of flesh twisted and flexed, showing off small and dexterous digits. Then it flickered, replaced with a much larger hand, made of nightmarish black chitinous plates, before returning to its pale self.

The sound of running from behind me quickly refocused my attention, but not quickly enough to prevent the secondary fabric that my upper body from being yanked up and over my head. I scrambled, yanking the fabric off my head as feminine laughter filled the air. The voice made me freeze.

It was THE Voice.

The voice that had been with me since I had woken up in the Everfree those few short days ago. The voice that, even now, proved to be a constant companion, even if I sometimes wished it would go away.

"Love doesn't just vanish. You said it yourself, 'Conservation of Energy'."

I frowned as I beheld the Voice. She was similar to my warped self, standing on two legs and with fab…clothing, draped over her. A black, twisted, and majestic horn on her head, coupled with a four-set of long, wondrous wings, stood in stark contrast to her flowing black robes and skin that was as pale as my own.

"Who are you!?" I yelled in frustration.

The Voice came closer, stepping in a perfect line towards me. Her hands were rigidly positioned perpendicular to her sides, and she bit her lip as she looked at the invisible floor.

"I wish I could tell you, but… I can't."

"Why!?"

Her eyes, sorrowful green orbs, rose to meet mine. "You told me not to." She laughed lightly. "I'm technically not even supposed to be talking to you."

I stepped back, confused. This was, by far, the strangest dream yet. The Voice turned and began talking to herself.

"'An experiment', you said. 'A harmless, simple experiment'. You couldn't bring yourself to accept them as evil… you had to 'give them another chance'. And look where it got you." The Voice glanced at me before continuing.

"I begged you not to go, I knew what would happen. You knew I was right, you even ADMITTED it, but you said you 'had to do it'. 'It wouldn't be fair', you said. And I let you go, just like that. Because whenever you put your mind to something, you did it. Anything that could be done, you could do. I still wonder to this day why you hadn't made yourself a god…" A laugh, bittersweet this time, came from her. "Oh that's right, you even had a comeback for that. 'Wouldn't be any fun, then', that's what you said. I remember that cheeky grin you gave me…"

She sighed wistfully and turned to me, smirking at the weirded out expression that was written all over my face. She came closer, wrapping her arms around my neck and lightly pressing her body against mine. My lack of response didn't seem to bother her as she placed her head on my shoulder.

"I miss that grin… I miss you…"

Everything started to fade away…

"WE miss you…"

For a moment, I could see nothing. Then, for a brief moment, I saw something so beautiful, I almost cried.

Frozen in time, Ponyville burned with the green fire of changelings.

The morning sun shone down directly onto me, warming rays seeping through my carapace and giving their heat to my body. I opened my eyes became acutely aware of a _fullness_ that wormed its way into every part of my body, stifling the Hunger and filling my magic reserves to the brim. It was the kind of fullness that could only come from one thing.

Pure, unrestrained love.

I began wondering just how real my dream had been. Had I just fed myself, or was it the Voice? It was utterly confusing.

Shaking my head, I looked across the room from my resting place to see the unicorn that I had saved with her head buried in a spellbook.

_MY_ spellbook.

I rushed over to the unicorn and swiped the book away from her, snarling and hissing possessively. The recently-revived mare whimpered and hid her head underneath her hooves, cowering like the _prey_ she was. I almost attacked her right then and there, but I stopped myself from performing that one fatal lunge.

Levitating the book over to my saddlebags, I looked down at the pony, anger simmering just below the point where it would be uncontrollable. I forced down the idea of hurting her, as I needed to question her, not beat her.

… Yet.

"What's your name?" I asked. The unicorn had a bewildered look on her face, as if she hadn't expected me to

talk. I leaned in closer, not in the mood for her stupidity.

"Your. Name." I said, enunciating clearly so that the mare could understand past her thick skull. When her jaw finally moved after a minute of silence, a weak whimper was all that came from her throat. A small snarl from me quickly brought forth actual words.

"I… I'm… L… Lu…" she stuttered. I snarled again loudly, slamming my hoof down next to her head.

"Stop your worthless blubbering!" I yelled. "Tell me your name, or I'll rip it from your mind myself!"

The unicorn teared up and quick responded. "I'm Lulamoon!" she shouted.

I stepped away from Lulamoon and nodded. "Alright _Lulamoon_," I began, walking around her in circles. "Listen, because I'm not going to repeat myself. First, you will do what I tell you to, understand?" Lulamoon nodded weakly, and I continued.

"Second, if you ever expose me to your fellow ponies, you will be the first to die."

"Third-"

"Who are you what do you want with me!?" Lulamoon shouted, quickly covering her mouth when I jerked my head to face her and hissed.

"Shut up!" I yelled. "Third, don't presume to ask about me! I'll let it go this time, but don't do it again!" I kept walking around the unicorn, trying to suppress my anger as I continued talking.

"My name is Revenant. I am a changeling. As for what I want with you, I want a servant. That's what you are. A puppet. Nothing more. I'd prefer to have something other than your pathetic species, but since I killed one of my own to save you, which turned out to be a waste of time, I might add, I'm stuck with you." I spared a glance at an upset Lulamoon, who was laughably upset at being called 'pathetic'. I walked over to her and leaned down, getting right in her face.

"Aw, is the pathetic little unicorn upset?" I said in the most mocking voice I could. "Am I making you cry? Do you want to go home and cry to your mommy?" I chuckled, thankful for having finally found some amusement.

A buck to the side of my head promptly ended that amusement.

I stumbled backwards. Lulamoon's buck was weak, but that was only a comparative statement. It still hurt, and my new headache was incredibly irritating.

"Pony!" I yelled, charging up a magical bolt. "You'll regret that!" I launched the bolt at Lulamoon, who rolled out of the way.

I began firing bolt after bolt at her, but all the unicorn could do was dodge. I realized with a savage grin that she knew absolutely no combat magic, so I decided to take mercy on her.

I buzzed over to Lulamoon, ducking under a jab and driving my hoof right into her gut. Her breath was driven out from her lungs, and she collapsed ungracefully. She began wheezing as she tried to get enough air once more, a few cough coming here and there. I leaned down next to Lulamoon's head to see fresh rows of tears flowing from her closed eyes.

"Four…" I whispered. "Fight me… you will lose… and if you try again… you will die."

Lulamoon, having finally refilled her lungs enough to breathe again, cried softly. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing," I snarled. "But I gave one of your kind my trust, and they turned me in even after I saved their life. I've done nothing for you, so I can only imagine what you would do if I gave you the chance."

"You're a monster…"

I snarled. "I had my life stolen by a pony. Who's the real monster?"

Lulamoon opened one eye to look at me. "You're not any better than them."

I recoiled at Lulamoon's words. For some reason, they stung worse than any magic bolt or manticore swipe. I slowly stepped back, confusion mixing with my anger.

"No!" I shouted. "I'm not like her! I'm not like him!"

"Then sto-"

"NO!" I picked up Lulamoon with my magic and slammed her against a pillar. I walked closer to her, seething loudly.

"Don't… Don't _EVER_ compare me with her!" My wings began buzzing by themselves, and I felt my eye twitching involuntarily. "I'm not a monster! I help ponies! And look what I got for it!" I gestured jerkily to the castle around us. "I get a run-down castle, another changeling's _blood_ and _hunger_ on my hooves, and _another_ stupid unicorn! I can't even trust YOU, because I know if I do, I'll wind up even worse than I am now!"

The blue pony was terrified by this point. She shook with tears and fear, but a slight flash of pity in her eyes only strengthened the rage I felt.

"Please…" She whimpered. "Let me go… I'm so hungry… I'm sorry… I wasn't thinking…"

I growled lowly and released her, letting her fall to the ground with a small yelp. I turned and walked away from her, trying not to rip her apart. Her prospective usefulness was the only thing that really kept me from doing so.

But for now, I would have to vent my anger on something other than her.

"I'll be back."

I walked out of the castle, leaving the shocked, hurt, and pathetic unicorn to herself.

I had some hunting to do.

I made my way back into the Everfree, still twitching every now and then. Who was that unicorn to judge me? I had been through more than she had! I had my trust, my only friendship, ripped to pieces! And her? She-

A roar ripped through air, shocking me out my thoughts. A manticore ripped through the woods, murder in its eyes as it charged at me. As I sidestepped, I noticed with a hint of irritation that the creature had a large path of missing fur on its stomach, and a burnt side.

The beast whirled around and pawed at the ground, snarling. I frowned in disgust and charged up a good amount of magic. The manticore bolted toward me, and I responded by letting loose with a blast of magic so strong it flew directly through the creature and cut down the tree behind it before dissipating.

I walked up to the limp body that had been no further than two bounds from me and looked down at it, my thoughts swirling. This creature had seen a chance for revenge and had taken it… just like I was doing. But its attempt to get back at me had ended in it being killed. Was… was I going to follow in the same path?

I levitated the body behind me as I returned to the castle, continuing to draw parallels between myself and the dead manticore. We had both picked a fight and lost. We had both been at our weakest. Only, it had lost the next fight with its enemy, while I still had the chance to do so. Should I just let it go?

…No.

I wouldn't let it go. But I wasn't going to attack any ponies the moment I saw them. I would wait until I got stronger, and only then would I confront Twilight, her friends…

… and _her_.

I walked back into the castle, depositing the deceased manticore in front of Lulamoon. I smirked as she observed the corpse with disgust.

"Eat up."

Lulamoon gulped and looked over her meal with dread. She glanced at me, then back to the body, then back at me.

"I… I can't…"

"Rule number one," I said flatly. Lulamoon's lip trembled, and her eyes teared up.

"C… can't you even cook it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

I created a magic blade and sliced off a small chunk of the manticore's flesh. Then I began to concentrate. I had never tried casting three spells at once, but I was going to do so now.

Keeping my blade up, I levitated the meat up and fired a small magical bolt at it. The flesh flash-cooked, meat

turning from red to an earth brown, fur immediately burning off, and began steaming with heat. Turning it over, I cooked the opposite side as well, resulting in a well-cooked, delicious smelling piece of meat. I proffered the chunk to Lulamoon, who edged away slightly. A slight glare brought her back, and we gently exchanged her soon-to-be meal.

Lulamoon looked at the meat, her appearance giving the notion that she was going to break down and cry at any moment. A low growl, not from me, filled the air, and the unicorn winced. Her hunger finally getting the best of her, she slowly took a tiny bite out of the meat as I continued to cut up and cook the manticore flesh. Her reluctant chewing gradually turned more empathetic as she finally began to appreciate her food. All of this resulted in a tiny, almost imperceptible trickle of positive emotion that I couldn't help but sip up.

My lips twitched on their own, and I got up and walked away before any real amusement could shine through my lingering irritation. I headed outside and sat down on the front steps of the castle, watching the midday sun and the blue, nearly cloudless sky through the hole in the tree cover.

"Eat up, Lulamoon," I said to myself. "We have places to be, ponies to see…

"…plans to be made."


	9. Learning

I sat outside for some time, thinking as I stared at the sky, waiting for Lulamoon to finish her meal.

I had told her that she was going to be my servant, but as it was she was near useless. _She_ had put up a better fight, and if this mare couldn't at least match _her_, then I would have to do something about it.

My thoughts flashed to the saddlebags and books I had kept. There were bound to be a few spells in there Lulamoon could learn. Even if she couldn't put up a decent fight, then the least she could do was be useful for... something. Anything. I didn't care. So long as I didn't get stabbed in the back again, it didn't matter to me.

Deciding that I had given the unicorn enough time to eat, I got up and walked back inside the castle. Lulamoon's original enthusiasm at actually having something to eat had obviously gone down, as she was chewing her meat with a repulsed expression, but her jaw was working fast enough to show that she was probably enjoying the flesh in spite of herself.

I chuckled to myself at the unnatural diet perversion I had forced her to enjoy.

Lulamoon turned her head to look at me, shrinking slightly in fear. I walked up to her, staring into her eyes. I held my gaze unblinkingly, while Lulamoon's occasionally flicked to something else in the ruined hall, and eventually she lowered her head. I observed her for a moment longer before letting out a grunt of approval and turning around, walking over to my saddlebags.

"I hope you enjoyed your food," I said aloud. "Because from now on, you're only going to be fed when I say so."

"W...what?" Lulamoon asked, partly upset, partly afraid. I allowed myself a small smile.

"From now on," I continued, levitating out all of my spellbooks and looking through them. "The rule of hoof is that you get to eat whenever you manage to learn a spell of my choosing." I glanced over my shoulder. "I'd say that's fair, wouldn't you?"

Receiving a slow nod in reply, I smiled widely, and, from the way Lulamoon flinched, frighteningly. I began looking through 'Beginner's Guide to Combat Magicks', flipping through the pages half-heartedly before tossing the book over to Lulamoon. She flinched again as the book landed in front of her, spilling open and presenting itself to her.

"I assume you at least know how to read?" I asked sarcastically, receiving a curt nod in return. "Then start reading that book. You will be able to cast magical bolts by nightfall."

Lulamoon looked up, out through the ceiling of the hall, her mouth dropping open when she saw that it was already midday, the sky just beginning to tinge orange. "But it's evening already!" she said exasperatedly.

I shrugged. "Then I hope you can read quickly."

I turned and began heading back under the castle, leaving the mare alone to her studies. A sudden... urge had come over me. I felt almost compelled to look around Parasite's lair once more, as if I had something to find.

I frowned as I noticed that the chandelier was no longer lit, lighting up my horn to compensate. I began rooting through Parasite's things for a second time, looking for whatever it was that had brought me down here. Nothing had changed since I had last looked, however, and I quickly became frustrated.

With a snarl, I whirled around and blasted a stone slab that rested directly behind me, shattering the rock and sending broken glass and liquids flying every which way. I stood still for a moment, trying to calm my heavy breathing. As the dust settled away from the slab, however, the light from my horn illuminated a hollow interior. My eyes widened in hope.

Walking over to the damaged stone, I peered inside and saw a variety of objects resting within. Black plates that reminded me of my carapace, several round rocks with identical intricate carvings, inkwells, a leather-bound book sealed with an obsidian chain, a quill, and a black and red amulet that resembled a pony princess were all strewn about. But it was the book that caught my attention.

Levitating the tome out of the stone, I placed it in front of me and sat down, unsure of what to do. Hesitantly, I moved my hoof to touch the book, gently brushing the chain with just the tip of my hoof.

immediately, the book jolted into the air, and the chain exploded, shattering into uncountable pieces. I flinched, but when I opened my eyes, I saw that the shards simply hung in the air, a set of bright green runes flickering in the cloud of shattered chain. Quickly, the shards combined back into their previous state, but this time the chain simply hung from the binding of the book.

The book remained hovering in the air, and as I watched, it slowly opened itself, flipping through pages and pages of writing, until it stopped almost halfway through itself. There was writing on the left page, but the right was blank. Slightly on edge, I began reading the entry.

_Commander O'Shovah,_

I consider myself fortunate, then, to no longer be part of the Hive Mind. I apologize, I did not know mention of an Elite so far from home would cause such unrest with you and your siblings. Queen Chrysalis was very clear in her statement of my mission, though. Given your last message, I will begin preparation for the arrival of Commanders Dostya and Orlok immediately. However, I respectfully request that Commander Orlok not come to either the Everdeep Castle or Ponyville until I have pacified the populace. The reach of ponies has grown farther and stronger in the time we have been gone, and unless we are moving ahead with the Kroniid Grahmindol, I do not think it would be wise for him to come here.

Respectfully,

Parasite

By the end of the entry, my head was pounding with a massive migraine. I tore my eyes from the pages, falling to the ground and clutching my head tightly. The names... they seemed so familiar...

When the throbbing faded, I stood up, noticing that the book still hovered in place. I moved to close it, but froze when text began appearing on the left page, as if the ink was being poured onto the page.

_Whoever Has Discovered This Book,_

I am coming.

You have one chance.

Give us back our brother.

Commander Dostya

My eyes widened, a grin blooming on my face as I remembered my dream from the night before. If it really was more than a dream, and this book wasn't some hallucination, then I had to get back to Ponyville soon. I flipped the cover of the book closed, watching as the chain shattered and reformed once more, sealing the tome tightly. I left the book on the floor, heading back upstairs.

I emerged to find Lulamoon standing all fours, eyes closed and teeth gritted, her horn sparking with magic but never actually becoming a full aura. I glanced up to the sky to see that all the blue had faded, a bright orange replacing it. Lulamoon's deadline was approaching quickly, the very nature of the Everfree working against her.

As quietly as I could, I slowly walked over to Lulamoon, eventually moving so that I was just out of her peripheral vision, allowing me to stand next to her as she concentrated on learning her first bit of combat magic.

Eventually she let out a large breath, head dropping low as she panted for air. Her eye cracked open to read the book in front of her, her expression becoming steadily more worried.

"I have to want to hurt somepony..." she said aloud. "But why isn't Revenant enough?"

I felt my lip curl into a snarl, barely keeping myself from making the sound to match as I waited for Lulamoon to do something worthwhile.

"I can't think of anypony else... so how can I want to hurt them?"

I blinked. She was either extremely focused on the present, or she actually couldn't think of anyling else. I decided to speak up.

"Oh come now," I said, startling the unicorn in front of me and making her whirl around with a yelp. "You must be able to remember _someling_ else. Someling that you hate."

I walked out into the center of the hall, Lulamoon turning back around to watch me.. "Take me for example. I hate all ponies, sure, but there are two a absolutely _despise_.

"The first... Pyrite Dreams. Do you know what she did to me?" Lulamoon opened her mouth to respond, but I cut her off. "She became my friend. Great, right? Who doesn't want a friend? She even let me stay at her house for a while. Sure, we had a rough start, but we warmed up to each other pretty quickly."

I gritted my teeth as I continued. "One day, she had the bright idea to go rooting through this castle. I was right behind her, and if it wasn't for me, she'd have turned back around and we would probably still be friends. But I guess I can't say that for certain... Anyways, we ended up fighting another changeling, and ended up killing him.

"Fast forward a little bit, and we're back in Ponyville, with a mob of ponies to greet us. And despite the fact that we... no, that _I_ had probably just saved their lives, you know what they did? They kicked me out. Six ponies kicked my flank all the way back to the Everfree. And Pyrite did nothing but stand there as they exposed me and beat the tar out of me. All she did was say 'sorry', then turn around and side with ponies I bet she hardly knew."

Lulamoon's expression was one of surprise. She probably hadn't expected that I had ever been nice enough to be friends. She looked down at the ground, and for a moment I almost wanted to get in her head, just so I could see what she was thinking.

"So... who was the other one?" she asked.

I sighed. "The other one... she was the one who exposed me as a fake. A fraud." Lulamoon's head snapped up. This caught my attention, and I locked eyes with her before continuing.

"She and her five friends..." An eye twitch. "They showed everyling in Ponyville that I was a changeling. They were the ones to drive me out." Her mouth opened slightly, her breathing becoming slightly faster. "I hate all of them. But this one, she was the one who got all of Ponyville together for when she exposed me with her fancy magic." Her entire body visibly tensed as she broke eye contact and lowered her head. "Her name was-"

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Lulamoon yelled, springing to all four hooves as her horn lit up with a bright pink glow. A beam of magic shot out from her horn, just missing me and hitting a barrel in front of a pillar, causing it to explode in a shower of rainbow colored liquid emotion.

I blinked in surprise. Not only had Lulamoon cast a magical beam, which was more difficult than a bolt, she and I also apparently had grudges with the same troublesome unicorn. I waited until Lulamoon calmed down and stopped seething before I spoke to her again.

"So... you DO know someling other than me." I said, interested in what she had to say.

Lulamoon put on the largest and most disgusted frown I had seen on her yet. "It's hazy... I can't remember anything important. All I know is that I HATE her. All of this is her fault, I just know it."

I nodded. "In a way, I suppose it is." I walked up to Lulamoon and placed a hoof on her shoulder. For the first time, she didn't flinch.

"I think it'd be best if you went to sleep, servant," I said, not receiving any acknowledgement. "We're going to Ponyville first thing in the morning."

"Why?" she asked.

I removed my hoof from her shoulder and grinned. "Because if I'm right, we're going to see quite a show."

"What if there isn't anything?"

I shrugged. "We'll need to go past Ponyville anyway. We'll skirt around it either way, and if there's something going on, we'll check it out."

Lulamoon nodded and laid down, curling up with a sigh. I walked to the opposite side of the hall and did the same, closing my eyes and letting myself drift off to sleep.

It was time.

My eyes shot open and I stood up, forcing myself to ignore the grogginess in my body. I stood up, yawning and shaking my head to help myself wake up. I glanced down next to me, looking at my saddlebags and the books that were stuffed inside. For a moment, I almost took them, but then decided against it. I didn't need reminders of Pyrite. I was going to leave her, and Ponyville, behind me.

I glanced over to see Lulamoon still asleep. I buzzed over to her, jabbing her swiftly in the side to wake her up. The unicorn yelped to consciousness, grabbing her side as she stood up. "I'm up!" she yelled.

I nodded and motioned with my head towards the doors to the castle, setting off at a brisk pace. A look skyward presented a very early morning, the sun just beginning to rise, but the sky was already tinged a bloody red. Lulamoon fell in behind me, and we began making our way to Ponyville.

The Everfree was deathly quiet, the sound of our hooves the only noise that could be heard. It was slightly unnerving. Red light filtered in through the tree cover, not even a breeze disturbing the giant limbs.

With my initial drowsiness wearing off, I was beginning to feel excited about returning to Ponyville. There was certainly going to be something big going down, but it'd be luck if I was there when it happened.

"Uh, Revenant?" Lulamoon piped up, a nervous tone in her voice. "What are we supposed to expect when we get to Ponyville?"

"We'll get chased down if we get spotted, that's for sure," I answered. "So we'll have to observe from a distance, or at least keep out of sight."

The silence fell once more. No more words were needed. We kept quiet until we reached Ponyville.

We exited the Everfree and were immediately greeted with the morning sky. It was still colored a bloody red, the occasional cloud providing what looked like texture, but otherwise was just as red as the sky. I pulled Lulamoon off of the trail, in order to avoid anyling.

"Follow me," I said. "I'm going to fly above you, so I can get a better view of where we're heading." I bared my fangs. "DO. NOT. RUN."

I waited for a fearful nod, then took to the sky, buzzing up until Lulamoon looked like a filly rather than a mare. I started flying forward slowly, keeping an eye out for both airborne pegasi and any ponies on hoof. The skies were unusually clear of pegasi, and if the sun's position was any indication, then I should have see at least _some_ movement from Ponyville.

As we approached the town, I saw a HUGE cluster of ponies gathered on the opposite side of Ponyville. Confident that Lulamoon and I could approach unseen, I buzzed back down to the ground.

"Come on," I said. "They're all concentrated in one area. We can skirt around the outer buildings without being seen."

Switching to a full-on run, I lead Lulamoon up to Ponyville, the two of us darting from building to building, alleyway to alleyway, completely unseen. We slowed down as we approached the gathering of ponies, stealthily remaining behind a house near the forefront of the mob while still within earshot.

At the head of the group was none other than Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and Pyrite Dreams. Both Lulamoon and I wanted to attack them right then and there, but I managed to keep both of us hidden and under control.

I looked down the road, following the gazes of the ponies.

What I saw made my jaw drop, and gave me another migraine.

A lone changeling approached Ponyville, undisguised in broad daylight. As it came closer, I saw that it's entire carapace was tinged a dark crimson, and it's eyes weren't blue, or even red like mine, but a very light, stale shade of green. Even more shocking was the four long wings folded against it's back. The changeling itself seemed larger than me, similar in size to Big Macintosh but skinnier.

This was, undoubtedly, Commander Dostya.

The Commander had a small harness on, a white flag raised high. It approached Ponyville slowly and deliberately, giving off an air of command so definite that a few ponies began shifting uncomfortably. Dostya stopped directly in front of Twilight, looking down at the unicorn with a disgusted expression.

"Where is he?" she, definitely a she, demanded. A moderate eastern accent distorted her words.

"Who?" Twilight asked, standing her ground

Dostya's lip twitched in a snarl for a brief moment. "Where is Revenant?"

"He's gone," Pyrite interrupted. Dostya raised an eyebrow. "We chased him into the Everfree Forest."

"If you want to go looking for him, go right ahead," Twilight said. "But otherwise, leave. We don't want your kind here."

The changeling Commander hissed lowly. "You will go into the forest and retrieve him, _NOW_. Hurry up, I'm not a patient changeling."

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" Twilight asked angrily, slightly bolstering the crowd's courage.

A sadistic grin broke out across Dostya's face. "Who am I?" she repeated, backing up slightly and standing tall, her wings spreading out . The Commander levitated her harness off of her, stabbing the flag into the ground.

"My name is Dostya. Commander Dostya. I am the commander of the Skywing Battalions. I am one of the five children of the King and the Queen." She narrowed her eyes. "Not a very long list, but it's more than you will ever be."

"We're not going to do what you tell us just because you're royalty," Twilight said defiantly. "Now leave Ponyville!"

Dostya bared her fangs. "I will not leave until you return my brother to me! Give him to me or your town and your lives will be forfeit!"

Twilight's pet dragon suddenly emerged from the crowd. "Oh yeah? You think you can take all of us?"

The changeling smiled wickedly. "Maybe not. But I don't have to."

Dostya opened a small pocket on her harness and pulled out a circular stone, identical to the ones I had seen in Parasite's lair. Whirling around, she threw the stone high into the air, until it was just a speck in the sky.

"Pfft," the dragon laughed. "What's that suppo-"

The stone suddenly exploded in a small green blast, which expanded into a green ball of energy, then abruptly collapsed back into itself...

...and then transformed into a _gigantic_ changeling.

The new changeling fell to the ground, the earth itself shuddering as it landed. My mouth dropped open at the sheer size of the changeling. It towered over the buildings of Ponyville, even the town hall. It's carapace was pitch black, glossy and with an extremely small repeating hexagonal pattern, and it's eyes were were a bright, glowing orange.

The changeling had, miraculously, not landed on anyling, Dostya standing between it's forelegs.

"ORLOK!" Dostya yelled. "THEY'RE ALL YOURS!"

Dostya's horn lit up, and a green swirl appeared behind her. She stepped back into the swirl and disappeared, the swirl vanishing shortly after. The collective of ponies gaped at the spot where she had vanished, before they were shocked out of their amazement.

Commande Orlok lifted his head and _roared_.

The sound made the building Lulamoon and I were hiding behind tremble, and the ponies in front of Orlok clutched their ears in pain. The second commander lifted up his hoof, sending already dazed ponies scattering as he took a single step forward.

Orlok's wings buzzed to life, lifting him into the air. The commander suddenly barreled forwards, flying through Ponyville and _tackling_ town hall.

I gaped as the structure collapsed effortlessly under Orlok's body, now nothing more than a pile of timber. The commander jumped back to his feet much faster than his size should have allowed, and his horn lit up as he let out another roar.

Magical bolts began firing from Orlok's horn like rain, obliterating a cluster of houses in explosions of wood, magic, and fire. Lulamoon let out a gasp of horror as we watched the commander destroy Ponyville. Screams of ponies filled the air as he continued his work, switching between rapid-fire magic and simply crushing, swatting or slamming into what was left of the town.

"Let's go," I said, pulling on Lulamoon's hair to snap her out of the horrified trance she had fallen into. We ran away from Ponyville as fast as we could, following the same road Dostya had come in by. We ran until Ponyville was almost beyond the horizon before we stopped to catch our breath.

I glanced back toward the destroyed town, watching black coils of smoke drifting up into the slowly bluing sky. From this distance, I couldn't make out a single intact portion of Ponyville. Only Orlok was clearly visible, the echoes of his roars managing to reach me and Lulamoon.

I chuckled loudly. Those ponies had gotten what they deserved. But these changeling commanders... I didn't trust them, not after Parasite. They were determined to find me, so I'd have to lay as low as I could. That meant no more 'adventures'.

"Come on," I said to Lulamoon. "Let's get going."

"Where are we going?"

I shrugged. "Somewhere away from all that."

With resigned sigh, Lulamoon nodded, and we continued down the road.


	10. Journey (Pt 1)

Lulamoon and I continued to make our way away from Ponyville. It was still early in the morning, so we had plenty of time to head wherever the road took us. I hoped that we would come across some sort of civilization before too long, however. Lulamoon was a pony, and needed food, which we had none of. I didn't need to feed for a while, judging from the amount of love I had somehow gotten from that dream, but all the same, I wanted to have a food source readily available.

Neither of us spoke to the other, something that allowed me to focus on my own thoughts. Glancing down at myself, I realized I needed another disguise. 'Night Wing' had served his purpose, and there was no way I could convince another town to accept him. And if I ever ran into any former Ponyvillians, they would expose me in an instant.

I chuckled, flashing back to earlier that day. 'Commander Orlok' had definitely given the ponies what they deserved. Although, it wasn't very reassuring that he was big enough to knock over a house by sneezing. If anything, that meant he would be an even bigger problem if I had to fight him.

I turned my thoughts to Dostya. Even though she and Orlok shared the same title, it seemed like she was the one in control. Orlok probably could have been there and scared the ponies into looking for me, but Dostya had just ordered them to and expected them to go along, only calling in Orlok once they didn't do what she wanted. In the end, it didn't matter, I suppose.

Shrugging to myself, I focused on coming up with a new disguise. It was obvious now that I had to choose whether to be a unicorn or a pegasus. Earth pony was completely out of the question. So it was between those two.

On one hoof, being a unicorn meant I could continue to focus on magic. It was the only trait I had really put an effort into learning, and it certainly had its uses. And I could teach Lulamoon what she needed to learn, and not draw any attention to us if we had to practice among other ponies in broad daylight.

On the other hoof, I really needed to get more practice flying. I hadn't done very much of it, and keeping watch in the sky as we approached Ponyville was the most use I'd gotten out of my wings. Plus, there was a feeling of being free that I just couldn't get on the ground. Lulamoon could just learn by herself, and when we were alone I could teach her personally.

I nodded to myself. Pegasus it was. I let my mind go blank, picturing a pegasus mare and letting my mind randomly fill in the colors. The result was a rich, dark jade coat, bright yellow mane and tail, and finally, red eyes. My lip twitched in amusement at the last bit. Red eyes seemed to be a trend.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I focused on the pony in my mind, to the exclusion of all else.

_Change._

With a flash, I felt my body change into the pegasus. My body became fuller, heavier. My fangs and horn disappeared, and my wings became larger, fuller, and feathery. I flapped my new wings a few times to get a feel for them.

Lulamoon stopped and gasped as I shapeshifted. I stopped and turned to face her, smirking and throwing my mane about, which was spikey at the tips, yet became straight as it went down my neck, ending in slightly curled spikes.

"I am an artist, aren't I?" I asked smugly, hearing my mare voice for the first time. It was strangely smooth compared to my normal voice, but there was something about it that still sounded like me.

Lulamoon looked me over, eyes wide. Eventually her eyes stopped on one part of me, and for some reason, I knew what it was in an instant.

"What?" I asked, flicking my straight tail.. "Does this form make my flank look big?"

Lulamoon coughed into her hoof. "N-no, you just..." She looked up at me. "You have no cutie mark."

I looked at my flank. Sure enough, it was blank. I frowned and thought to myself. I didn't have a name for this form either. I thought about it for a moment. I was a pegasus, so I could probably get away with 'wing' or 'feather' in my name. I was colored jade and yellow, so maybe 'green' or 'gold'.

With a grin, I shapeshifted again. This time, a feather made from jade appeared on my flank.

"Call me Jade Feather," I said. "Stupid ponies won't suspect a thing."

All Lulamoon did was continue to stare at me, her eyes wide. "You look... good. Really good."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course I do." I gestured with my hoof for her to follow me. "Come on, we've got lots of ground to cover."

Lulamoon shook her head, seemingly clearing a daze from her mind. We continued on, silence settling in once more.

It took us awhile before anything of interest happened. We eventually came to a fork in the road, a wooden post in the ground with three arrows attached to it.

"Well," I said slowly, coming to a stop. "Left or right?" I looked more closely at the arrows, making out names that were worn, but still legible. "Manehattan or... Las Pegasus?"

A sudden whimper caught my attention. I turned to see Lulamoon backing away from the sign, eyes wide with fear. "No..."

"Something the matter?" I asked, trying to keep the amusement out of my voice. The mare nodded jerkily.

"Bad place... anywhere but there...please..." she begged, still staring at the sign.

"Where?" I asked, confused.

"Las... Pegasus..." she squeaked. I grinned.

"You know what? Let's go to Las Pegasus," I said, grinning as I watched the unicorn tremble in fear. "I bet there's lots of ponies for you to make friends with. Maybe you can grab a hat put on a little show for them."

As I chuckled to myself, Lulamoon froze, not even blinking. I began laughing as twin streams of tears began flowing down her cheeks. She just stared ahead, completely oblivious to me. I waved a hoof in front of her face, her lack of reaction only making me laugh harder.

Eventually my laughter died down to chuckling, and I nudged Lulamoon's shoulder.

"Come on," I said, trying to suppress the laughter that was trying to come out again. "You can stop staring like an idiot. We'll go to Manehattan."

Lulamoon kept staring, dead to the world. Now that she wasn't listening to me, it was a lot less funny. I frowned, giving her a light shove. She swayed to the side, but slowly stood up straight once more.

"Lulamoon, let's go," I said, tapping my hoof on the ground. She was becoming very irritating, very quickly.

"Snap out of it!" I yelled, moving to stand right in front of her.

"On the count of three, or else!" I raised my hoof. "One!"

No response.

"Two!" I brought my hoof across my chest, holding it high and ready.

Nothing.

"Three!" I swung, back-hoofing Lulamoon across the face. The blow sent her sprawling in the dirt, but she still did nothing, simply falling to the ground, tears still flowing.

I growled and kicked her in the ribs. "Get up."

Lulamoon continued to ignore me.

An idea come to mind, but I didn't want to do it. Still, nothing I did was getting me anywhere, so I was out of options.

"Fine," I muttered. "I didn't want to do this, but you aren't giving me a choice. If you don't want to listen... I'll make you"

Quickly looking around to make sure there was noling around, I shapeshifted back into my changeling self. With a long sigh to myself, I closed my eyes, leaning down and touching my horn to Lulamoon's. I felt a slight tugging in my mind, and the world faded away.

Like before, I was floating in a void.

Unlike before, I wasn't greeting by a ball of slime, but by a crying little filly.

I was taken aback for a moment. The filly was colored the same as Lulamoon, but she had no cutie mark, and was dressed in a purple hat and cape with star patterns, both of which were too large for her.

I walked over to the mini-Lulamoon, pushing my slight discomfort aside. She needed to be taught a lesson, or else she'd probably keep doing this whenever she heard the name 'Las Pegasus', and that would just get annoying.

I stopped next to the filly, looming over her. She stopped sobbing and looked up at me with wide, tear-filled eyes. By ponies, she would be considered unbearably pitiful. To me, she was a frustrating wreck.

"Stand up," I commanded. The filly's lip trembled, and she looked ready to burst into tears again. I stamped my hoof down next to her, growling lowly. That proved to be motivation enough.

"Why?" she asked.

"Shut up," I said.

"Why are you so mean?"

"Why are you so useless?"

"Please stop... please..."

"Stop whining and grow a backbone."

Mini-Lulamoon took off her hat and threw it at me. I stood still as it hit my face, then sit it alight with a burst of magic.

"I hate you!" she yelled, turning and running away.

I grinned, taking off and flying in front of her, cutting her off as I touched down.

"I don't care," I said lowly, stepping towards her slowly. She turned and ran off in a different direction, but I took off and landed in front of her again.

"You can hate me all you want..."

"Go away!" she ran away again, but every time she did, I simply flew and landed in front of her, so she couldn't get away from me.

"You're mine now."

"Leave me alone!"

"You can't run, you can't hide..."

"Stop it!"

"I'll never leave you alone."

"Please!"

My head ached for a brief moment. "We exist together now..."

"Stop!"

"...two corpses, in one grave."

The filly tripped over her own hooves and fell face-first. I buzzed over to her, picking her up with my magic and slamming her against the non-existent ground. I touched down, planting my forehooves on either side of her head, leaning down and snarling in her face.

I was the predator.

She was the prey.

"You're alive because of me. _NEVER_ forget that."

"I..."

"Now get up and stop wasting my time."

I looked into the filly's eyes. I was staring at her very soul.

And I saw something break.

The world faded to black.

I stepped away from Lulamoon, quickly shapeshifting back into Jade Feather. The unicorn on the ground groaned, her eyes snapping shut as she curled up.

"Get up," I ordered.

Lulamoon froze, opening her eyes and looking up at me. We made eye contact for a split second before she flinched, looking back to the ground.

Then, slowly, she pulled herself to her hooves.

She didn't look back up at me, keeping her eyes glued to the ground. The most she would look at me was a glance at my hooves. I scoffed, rolling my eyes so hard it almost hurt.

"Let's go," I said, glancing up at the sky. The sun was approaching the horizon, which meant that we had wasted almost an entire day at one intersection.

I turned left, heading down the road towards Manehattan. I heard Lulamoon's hoofsteps behind me, trudging along.

The road to Manehattan was mostly dull and boring. The farther we got from Ponyville, the less controlled the greenery became, eventually becoming walls of grass and wheat that swayed in the breeze.

It was some time before the repetitive scenery faded away, becoming more controlled, as if the ponies that came this way kept it so. The sun was rapidly lowering, now only half above the horizon.

I noticed there was a dirt pathway leading off of the main road. The path led to a good-sized lake that practically glittered. Since it wouldn't be long before night fell, I figured it was as good a place as any to settle down for the night.

"This way," I announced, heading off the road and down the pathway. Lulamoon didn't respond, but I was able to hear her dragged-out hoofsteps continue to follow me.

We made our way to the lakeside, heading slightly away from the path to avoid anyling that might stumble onto us.

"Here," I said, laying down on the short grass. "We are staying here for the night."

Lulamoon collapsed to the ground with a sigh. I could tell she was physically and emotionally exhausted. I grinned.

"Go take a bath," I told her, pointing to the lake. "I could smell you from across the Everfree."

Her lip trembling, the mare forced herself to her hooves, trudging slower than ever to the lake. She hesitated as soon as she got to the water's edge, tentatively putting one hoof in and shivering at the temperature.

She glanced over to me, and I pretended not to pay attention, watching her out of the corner of my eye. She looked at me for a few seconds, then looked away and bowed her head. She slowly waded into the water, shivering increasingly harshly as she went deeper and deeper into the obviously frigid water.

I chuckled to myself as she tried pathetically to bathe herself, weakly splashing water over herself with her hooves. I watched as she stuck her head underneath the surface...

...she stayed under...

...still under...

…_still_ under...

...a set of bubbles popped at the surface.

Immediately I realized what she was doing. She was trying to drown herself, just to get away from me. She would rather die than be my servant.

She wasn't getting off that easily.

Enraged, I immediately shapeshifted back into my changeling self, snarling as I launched myself into the air. I created a magical blade around my horn, diving headfirst into the lake.

Thanks to the blade, the lake water boiled and evaporated as soon as the two made contact, allowing me to dive through the water almost as if I was still falling. I quickly dove down to the sinking Lulamoon, wrapping my forehooves around her and buzzing my wings as fast as I could to bring us back to the surface.

I pierced the surface of the lake, bursting out and practically throwing Lulamoon to the lakeside. She rolled limply as she hit the ground, as if she was already dead.

I landed next to her and flipped her onto her back. I quickly ran my eyes over her body, trying to see if she showed any signs of breathing again. When she didn't, I stamped my hoof on the ground in anger and thought to myself.

I had a vague idea of pony anatomy, but no real idea of what to do when one drowned. I looked her over again. Water in the lungs... ribcage... diaphragm... there!

I placed my hoof just underneath Lulamoon's ribcage, making sure I had the position right. I drew my hoof back.

"Stupid ponies..." I muttered.

I drove my hoof directly into Lulamoon's gut, causing her to curl around it as she gave a miniscule wheeze of air, the rest going into propelling a large amount of lakewater out of her lungs. She fell back to the ground, eyelids cracked open slightly, eyes almost rolled back in their sockets.

"Breathe already!" I yelled, punching her again. A smaller amount of liquid came up, and this time was followed by a large inhale.

Lulamoon coughed and hacked, rolling onto her belly, which she clutched in what I presumed was pain. I hadn't been gentle with her, so it was expected. As soon as she stopped coughing up what water was left in her, Lulamoon took several large breaths, her eyes fluttering open.

I cleared my throat loudly, getting her attention in full. Her next breath caught in her chest, and she turned her head slowly to look up at me. I scowled down at her.

"I told you," I said matter-of-factly. "You can't run, you can't hide." I leaned down closer to her, so that our noses were almost pressing against one another.

"You're mine. And you will _never_ escape me."

I pulled back, turning into Jade Feather as I did so.

"Now get some sleep," I ordered. "If you try and kill yourself again, you'll have bigger things to worry about than finding a lake deep enough to do it in."

The mare sniffed, but lowered her gaze and closed her eyes, nodding briskly. She curled up into a soaking wet ball, trying to keep herself warm. I scoffed in disgust and moved away from her, far enough so that she could feel alone but close enough to act if she tried anything.

I laid down on the grass once more shuffling my wings and trying to get comfortable. Compared to the stone of the Everfree Castle, the grass was a luxury. I kept my eye on the suicidal unicorn, watching her shiver from the cold the water brought on and mumble what sounded like 'daddy' over and over.

It was pathetic, really.

Night seemed to take forever to arrive, the moon crawling up into the sky behind the sun, but by the time it did, Lulamoon's mumblings had stopped, and she seemed to have fallen asleep, however fitful it was.

Feeling slightly relieved, I closed my eyes, feeling a bit worn out by the day's events. I began to drift off to sleep...

"Alright, everypony, here looks like a good spot!"

...oh no.

I opened my eyes and raised my head to see a crowd of ponies coming down the pathway from the main road. At their head were several ponies, and one lizard, that I recognized all too well. Twilight Sparkle, her friends and tagalong pet, and the one pony I despised above all others.

Pyrite Dreams.

With them was what I guessed to be the rest of Ponyville, except that the crowd here was smaller than I remembered seeing. I allowed myself a small laugh at the damage Orlok had done to their numbers. Twilight stopped and turned around, the rest of the crowd making a half-circle around her.

"Alright everypony," she said sadly. "I know we're all tired, so we're going to stay here for the night. I'd advise you all to find your loved ones and keep them close, we're not out of the metaphorical woods yet."

I took advantage of the Ponyvillian's distractedness to slink over to Lulamoon, waking her with a nudge. She started, but I held her down so we didn't draw any sudden attention to ourselves.

"The Rules," I whispered menacingly into her ear. She gave a slow, fearful nod in reply.

As the crowd began to disperse, somehow making it even larger as the ponies rushed around, Lulamoon and I stayed put, watching the scene unfold before us. Names were called out, and most of the time they were responded to.

Fluttershy timidly came over to us, her hair obscuring most of her face.

"I'm terribly sorry about all this..." she said softly. "We've just had a long, bad day... um, we'll... try not to disturb you."

I couldn't resist snapping at her. "If you don't want to disturb us, then why did you come here in the first place?"

The pegasus flinched. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"Get lost," I said, waving her away.

Looking as if she was about to cry, Fluttershy hurried away from the two of us. Lulamoon exhaled loudly, as if she had been holding her breath. I grinned, patting her head softly.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I asked rhetorically. I heard hoofsteps approaching us, and I sighed, getting ready to send the pegasus away again.

"Didn't I tell you-" I began, slowly looking up, greeted by the sight of Twilight instead of her cowardly friend.

"Shut up."

I blinked. She was harsher than I remembered.

"Excuse me?" I asked, blinking in an 'are you kidding me' way. Twilight scowled at me.

"She just lost her pet. Leave her alone." The mare shifted her gaze to a disheveled Lulamoon, both mare's eyes suddenly widening.

"Oh my Celestia," she said. "Trixie?"

Apparently, that name gave Lulamoon a sudden burst of energy, as she lunged at Twilight, tackling her to the ground, her horn lighting up a bright pink. She shook with rage, totally unlike the submissive pony she had been seconds ago.

"I hate you..." she seethed. Twilight's only response was to gape in shock.

"Lulamoon!" I yelled. I waited a moment, then joined Twilight in gaping in shock as Lulamoon ignored me.

"I said, Lulamoon!" I repeated. Her horn only lit up brighter, and I could tell she was going to do something that would complicate things way beyond my liking.

Twilight's eyes broke from Lulamoon's stare and looked at me pleadingly. I glanced around, seeing a small crowd forming around us. I growled to myself. As much as I wanted Sparkle to be a smear on the ground, I had to act.

I darted forward, using my wings to propel myself faster than my hooves could alone. I grabbed Lulamoon by her mane and yanked her back, throwing her to the ground and standing over her.

"TRIXIE! LULAMOON!" I shouted, remembering the name Twilight had called her to set her off.

Immediately, 'Trixie's' magic died down as she realized who I was. She closed her eyes and shielded her face with her hooves, expecting me to hit her. And as much as I wanted to, I didn't. Instead, I backed off, turning my attention back to Twilight.

"She's sensitive," I said, blatantly lying and hoping that I could convince Sparkle otherwise. "She doesn't like to hear that name."

Twilight nodded dumbly. "Yes, I suppose you're right..." I helped her to her hooves, looking around at the crowd.

"Alright everypony, show's over!" I said loudly. They mumbled amongst themselves for a bit, then shrugged unanimously and dispersed.

"I'm sorry about that," Twilight apologized. "I didn't-"

"Save it," I said, waving a hoof dismissively. "Just leave us alone, before somepony is really sorry."

The mare bowed her head politely, then left to attend to the rest of the Ponyvillians.

I walked over to Lulamoon, dropping to the ground and looking her directly in the eyes. She immediately flinched and looked away.

"Look at me," I told her. "Trixie."

Slowly, 'Trixie' looked back at me, her eyes fearful, uncertain.

"Is that your name?" I asked, getting a nod in return. "Then why did you tell me otherwise?"

"My name is Trixie Lulamoon," she said. "I didn't lie to you."

I couldn't help but grin. All of a sudden, she had a backbone. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

"You didn't tell me the whole truth, then." I narrowed my eyes. "What else aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing," Trixie responded. "I really don't remember anything." She looked out at the lake, her eyes gaining a faraway look.

"My dad used to take me fishing here..." she said wistfully. "It was never sunny, we never caught anything... but I miss doing it."

I regarded her for a moment. She had the same problem I did. Like me, her memory seemed to be triggered by certain things.

I... understood.

"That was then," I told her. "We're in the now."

Trixie sighed and lowered her head to the ground. I expected her to cry, but she simply sat there in silence. I gave her a soft pat on the head, then turned my attention elsewhere.

Twilight and her friends all emerged from the scattered crowd, each one bearing an expression of sadness, some crying outright. Applejack in particular was wiping her eyes every few steps, moving very shakily. Even Pinkie Pie, who seemed like she was never down, had rivers pouring from her face.

I listened closely as they started talking, my grin at their distress becoming wider and wider the more they talked.

"Girls?" Twilight began. "The Mayor isn't with us anymore. I don't want to ask, but..."

"B-b-big Mac..." Applejack began, pausing to wipe her eyes. "He's... he's gone..." Everyling in their little group gasped in shock, all bearing looks of horror.

"He went down fightin'..." the farm pony continued. "Whatever good it did... thank Celestia he got Granny Smith out okay..."

"I'm so sorry Applejack..." the white unicorn said, trying desperately and rapidly failing to hold her composure. "I know what you're feeling. My father... did not... he did not make it out of Ponyville."

"Rarity..." Fluttershy whispered, moving over to her and holding her friend closely. "I'm so sorry. I lost Angel..."

"What about you Rainbow?" Twilight asked hesitantly. "Everypony you know make it out?"

"Lightning Dust," the pegasus replied simply, her head held low. "She didn't have a chance."

Everyling looked at Pinkie Pie, who held what little composure she had left, then broke down and burst out crying.

"The Cakes!" she bawled, falling to the ground. "They're all gone!"

Everyling drew together, sharing in their tears and sadness. I turned my attention away from them, lying down next to Trixie and grinning insanely.

"So many dead..." I whispered.

Trixie gasped in horror, but quickly steeled her expression and closed her eyes, scowling. She was horrified that ponies had died, undoubtedly, but I had a feeling she was in the same camp as me.

I allowed myself one more chuckle, then closed my eyes and fell asleep, hearing the cries of ponies who had lost loved ones ring out through the air.

I couldn't decide whether it was a mournful pealing, or a wonderful melody.


	11. Journey (Pt 2)

I felt a gentle nudging on my shoulder, which immediately ruined my peaceful sleep and woke me up. I felt incredibly drowsy, and drained as well. It was like I had fought Parasite all over again, by myself.

I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes slowly. I let out a huge yawn, shook my head to try and wake myself up some more, then looked around for whatever had decided to wake me up.

"Oh, you're awake..." a soft voice said directly above me.

I looked up to see Fluttershy hovering over me, smiling gently. I gave her the best glare I could, getting her to flinch slightly.

"What do you want?" I asked, sounding as irritated as I could manage.

"Oh, I just wanted to let you know, since you were sleeping and all, that my friends are going to be trying some different spells, and, um, well, it might be just a little bit loud soon."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Typical unicorns, always so loud and proud."

Fluttershy's eyes narrowed. "Hey, watch it. Twilight and Pyrite are my friends. You had better be nice to them."

I blinked in surprise as the pegasus fluttered away, missing my chance for a rebuttal. She had a bit more backbone than I thought she did.

I looked back down to see Trixie sound asleep, laying on her side and breathing gently. I poked her side a few times, watching as she jolted to awareness. Her head lifted up, and for a moment, twin amethyst eyes stared into mine, a bizarre look in them. Trixie seemed... different.

The moment ended, and the unicorn looked back at the ground, pulling herself up and rubbing an eye tiredly.

"It looks like we might have some entertainment this morning," I said casually, gesturing over to where Twilight, Pyrite, and their little group were setting up.

Everyling was clustered around Pyrite, who was dressed in a black longcoat and fedora. She and Twilight seemed to be arguing quietly about something, with Twilight eventually sighing and nodding in submission. Everyling watched intently as the purple mare's horn lit up and she began to trace something in the air with it.

"What's she doing?" Trixie asked quietly. I shrugged in response.

As I watched more closely, whatever Twilight had been tracing began to flicker into existence, bizarre symbols arrayed in a circle, burning with purple fire. Unable to make out the symbols, I got up and walked closer to the group, a small ache in my head rapidly growing as I began to make out the characters.

"Ahzid ah..." I whispered to myself, the words coming from nowhere. "Lun al... brendon do key... nahkriin... nir... kinbok."

No sooner than I finished speaking, the circle of runes flashed, spinning rapidly as three more circles of runes, ones I couldn't quite catch, appeared on Pyrite's coat and fedora. The circle Twilight had drawn broke, each rune flying to join the others on Pyrite's clothing. When the runes formed a fourth circle on the coat and fedora, Pyrite threw her head back, her entire body shining with a blinding light.

I winced and covered my eyes, waiting until the light faded before looking again. When I did, I gaped at the pony that stood in Pyrite's place.

A pale coat, tinged very slightly amber, was mostly hidden by the longcoat and hat. Dull blue eyes replaced the previous sapphire brilliance, and the pony's expression was completely unreadable.

I blinked once more, trying to understand what had happened. Not-Pyrite turned her head very slowly to look at me, and as I watched, the space around her seemed to fold over her, erasing her from existence. I took a step backwards, suddenly bumping into someling. I turned, then almost had a heart attack as I came face-to-face with Not-Pyrite.

"My name is Brass Vision," the pony said flatly. "You are a changeling."

I blinked in surprise. Things had gotten very bad, very quickly.

"No I'm not," I said as calmly as I could. I looked past 'Brass Vision' at Trixie, giving her a look that I hoped said 'help me'.

Trixie's eyes widened, the mare looking at me with a blank stare. I glared, making her gulp and nod quickly. She walked up behind Brass, clearing her throat as loudly as she could.

"She's not a changeling," Trixie said. "I swear."

Brass turned slowly, deliberately. She ran her gaze over Trixie a few times, then spoke.

"Have you been in contact with any changelings recently?" she asked, getting a hesitant nod in return. "I see. I trust it was not a friendly interaction?"

Trixie shook her head.

"Very well."

The space around Brass folded over her again, and she reappeared over by Twilight. I let out a sigh in relief.

"That was too close," I said. "Good... good work Trixie."

The mare smiled briefly at the compliment, then stopped and lowered her head. "Rule number one..." she said sadly.

I grinned. "Yes it is." I patted the unicorn on the head, then turned my attention back to Twilight's group.

They seemed excited, happy over their success that seemed to wipe away the sorrow of last night. I rolled my eyes and snorted in annoyance. I turned towards the dirt path we had followed to the lake and began walking back towards the main road, gesturing for Trixie to follow me.

"Come on," I said. "We're leaving before they get enough brains to figure out I really am a changeling."

Trixie nodded silently, falling behind me as we made our way away from the wakening survivors of Ponyville. The sun was just beginning to rise, lighting up the world in preparation for the rest of our journey.

Trixie and I set a brisk pace, trying to get away from the Ponyvillians as quickly as we could. As the lake became further and further behind us, the grass became uncontrolled once more, setting the scenery for what would probably be a long time.

The two of us were silent. I was concentrated on simply getting to Manehattan as quickly as possible, while Trixie had her eyes glued to the ground, probably lost in thought. The quiet quickly became boring, and I decided to break it.

"So Trixie," I started, sounding as casual as I could. "You know anything about Manehattan?"

"I..." she replied, uncertainty audible. "I think it's a city..."

"Uh huh." I rolled my eyes. "Anything else?"

"There's... a schoolhouse..."

"Is it called anything?"

"...I... I don't remember..."

That got my interest.

"What do you mean?"I asked. "Did you live in Manehattan before?"

I heard Trixie's hoofsteps stop suddenly. I turned to see the mare standing in place, looking at me with wide eyes. I walked back up to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Well?"

"The... the school's called 'Shining Star Elementary'."

"Well that's a stupid name."

Trixie ignored me, continuing to stare ahead as she talked.

"It was run by Ms... Ms..."

I sighed aggravatedly and gave Trixie a light slap on the cheek. She blinked, then shook her head, looking at me for a moment before dropping her eyes to the ground.

"I'm sorry."

"Next time, I'll just leave you standing there like the idiot you are," I snarled, turning around and continuing along the road.

Trixie was silent for a while as she fell in line behind me. Eventually, I heard a sniffle or two, her hoofsteps faltering every now and then. I ignored her for the most part, but as I heard her start to fall behind, I growled to myself, irritation mounting.

A sudden yelp from behind finally pushed me over the edge. I wheeled around, seeing Trixie sprawled in the dirt, tears flowing down face. I went up to her, standing over her and shapeshifting out of my disguise in case I needed to force her to get up.

"Can't you even walk straight?" I asked, glaring down at the mare.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry," she whispered shakily. "I tripped."

"Over what? There's nothing here to trip you except your own four hooves."

"I-"

"Oh save it," I cut Trixie off. "You really are useless, you know that?"

The unicorn in front of me flinched, sinking back towards the ground as I stepped closer to her. Tears shimmered on her face, washing away dirt and dust she had gotten from falling. A small cut was present in her cheek. She looked ready to break down and cry openly.

"You have no idea how much I've lost," I continued. "I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here, and what have you sacrificed?" I pressed my head to Trixie's, eyes inches apart, our horns grating together.

"Nothing. Zero." I dropped my voice to a whisper. "You know what you are? Selfish. All you've been is dead weight. A spineless, useless coward that I wasted my time saving. Tantrums and cowering, that's all you've been since we met."

"I'm sorry," she squeaked.

"Sorry won't cut it any more."

The world faded.

This time, I didn't hesitate for a moment.

As soon as Trixie appeared in front of me, I lunged at her, fangs bared. She didn't have any time to react as I bit down viciously on her neck. Instead of blood, a blackened burst of rainbow shot out from where my fangs tore into her body.

Trixie screamed, and I felt myself being thrown away from her. I managed to land on my hooves, preparing for another charge. Trixie simply stood where she was, dark rainbows spurting from her wound, her mouth wide open.

I hissed lowly, forming a blade around my horn. I briefly wondered why I was using magic if none of this was real, but I decided that wasn't important right now. Instead, I charged at Trixie, aiming to impale her.

The unicorn's horn lit up, brightly colored explosions erupting in front of me. The explosions tossed sparks into the air, which hovered for a moment, then all flew at me. I was forced to dodge away from Trixie, letting my blade fade away for the moment. The sparks impacted where I had been standing, more explosions erupting from where they struck.

I looked at Trixie, whose eyes seemed to have glazed over. Her entire body seemed to be... melting. Her mouth still hung open, giving her a twisted, horrible appearance. The wound on her neck still spurted, though now the dark rainbow had turned to black ooze.

I hesitated for a moment, slightly off-put. Trixie took advantage of this and quickly created more explosions, and more sparks. But instead of chasing me, the sparks flung themselves against the ground, exploding again and creating even more sparks. My eyes widened as I watched what had been a dozen sparks multiply over and over, eventually becoming so numerous that no matter where I looked, there was a colored spark, ready to kill me, or worse.

I was the _prey_.

A splitting pain erupted in my head. I hissed and fell, my eyes clamping shut as the pain pulsed. I watched as images of Parasite, of his lair, of my fight with him...

… of his shield.

My eyes snapped open. I gathered up the magic I needed. I watched as the sparks began to fall. I lifted myself up, glaring at the descending wall of sparks defiantly, casting the shield spell that had suddenly come to me.

A bright green dome spread over me, coloring the outside mind-world a similar green. The wall of sparks slammed into the shield, and I gasped in shock as I felt each impact drain my energy a tiny bit.

When the sparks finally stopped falling, I felt completely out of breath. I released the shield, staggering as the strain of protecting myself faded with it. I wondered how powerful Parasite must have really been to keep that shield up as large and long as he did.

The twisted Trixie gurgled, and I knew I didn't have much time until she attacked. Throwing away every shred of caution, I rushed her, buzzing into the air and streaking towards her as green magic enveloped my body, turning me into a living comet.

Trixie's horn lit up, but she was too late.

I made contact with the deformed Trixie, barely feeling resistance as I ripped through her body, black and blue ooze erupting everywhere. Slowing down and turning around, I saw a brightly glowing orb where Trixie had been. Setting down, I went up to it and looked it over.

The orb was a bright blue, like Trixie's hair. But underneath the surface, there was a perforated layer of black, oily liquid, through which shone a dim light. With one more disgusted look, I created a magical blade, then sliced cleanly down the center of the orb, which immediately burst into fragments that disappeared into nothingness, wiping out the mind-world with them.

It was still incredibly disorienting to wake up controlling two bodies at the same time. I quickly forced the eyes of both bodies shut, not wanting to deal with any more senses than I could handle. At the moment, even standing was a huge problem.

Trixie's body had its own balance that, while somewhat familiar, was still strange to me. I struggled to keep both my body and hers upright. Each time I got one to stand, the other would begin to fall. It was difficult trying to keep track of two different balances, much more difficult than creating my breaching spell. The two spells didn't want to go together, but it felt like I _couldn't_ go together with Trixie's body, like it and whatever was left of her were trying to drive me out.

I growled, the noise coming from both throats, heard with both sets of ears, breath smelt with two noses. The double sensory input completely destroyed my concentration, and as hard as I tried, both bodies fell to the ground.

I managed to pull both bodies back to their hooves, but I no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them to stand up together. When they both fell back to the ground, I decided to simply let them sit there. The Voice would help me. She always did.

And so I waited.

And waited.

...Nothing.

Not even a whisper.

A feeling of panic crept into me as more and more time passed, the complete silence of the world becoming extremely uncomfortable. There was no guiding voice, no mysterious figure, no strange directions followed by incredibly strong instinct.

Closing both body's eyes, I let their heads hang, but even the double action didn't give what I was feeling justice. I was completely alone, without any help.

I pushed my thoughts to the side, trying to focus once more on getting up and moving on. I would have time to sulk later. As it was, all I was doing was waiting for all of Ponyville to catch up to me. I knew what would happen if they killed Trixie's body, but I didn't want to find out what would happen if they killed mine.

I focused on Trixie's body, getting another feel for her balance before I tried getting up again. I took a pair of deep breaths, then began my attempt.

First, I drew right foreleg up, pushing both bodies off the ground. They moved easily enough, though Trixie's was more jerky.

Next, left foreleg. Again, it wasn't so hard, but I found it increasingly difficult to direct the motions of two bodies simultaneously. Trixie's body seemed to be getting less and less responsive, drawing too much of my attention.

Right hind leg. I could feel the balances slipping, and I pushed to keep them in line.

Finally, the left hind leg. Instead of drawing them up, I pushed off the ground quickly with the legs, almost destroying the balance, but still managing to get both bodies to stand up straight.

Two loud sighs of relief came from the bodies I was holding up. I looked out on the road ahead with two pairs of eyes. It was straight as a rod. It would be perfect for trying to walk...

...No.

I closed four eyes and took two deep, calming breaths.

"Okay Revenant," I said to myself, the sentence sounding odd when it was said with two voices and heard with two sets of ears. A slight ache was felt from my body's head, but I ignored it. "Sometimes, you have to run before you can walk."

Opening four eyes, I looked at the road again.

Then, without thinking or hesitation, I ran.

For whatever reason, running was _so_ much easier.

Both my body and Trixie's moved in perfect sync. The same speed, same movements, everything. It was like they were twins.

A pair of sharp, harsh laughs came at my will. Trixie's body was resisting me less and less, feeling more and more natural. My body was still clearly my original body, but Trixie's was beginning to feel like an extension, one I was aware of, but didn't need to focus on to control.

The sun was high in the sky, signaling midday. I slowed both bodies to a walk, wanting to savor my accomplishment. I was in no rush to go anywhere, so there was no need to run anymore.

A small glint out of the corner of Trixie's eye caught my attention. I turned both heads to see what it was, but there was nothing besides the light reflecting off the carapace underneath my wings, slightly blinding my second set of eyes.

I shrugged with both bodies and turned their eyes back to the road ahead. Feeling confident, I made Trixie's body move a bit faster, getting it out in front of my body just enough to stop the reflected sunlight from catching its eye. Satisfied, I allowed myself to savor the sun just a little more.

Then it hit me.

I hadn't shapeshifted back yet.

Rolling two sets of eyes and smacking myself in the head with two hooves for forgetting something so simple. I brought the image of 'Jade Feather' to mind once again-

"ROYAL GUARD OF EQUESTRIA! DON'T MOVE!"

Oh no.

I looked up with two pairs of eyes, watching four pegasi in bright golden armor dive from the sky. The loud clanking of metal against the ground signaled another two earth ponies armed with spears and a single unicorn. The group of seven ponies surrounded me, ready to attack at the slightest movement.

"Lieutenant, sir, look," one pegasus said. "She's under its control. They're moving in complete sync."

"We got lucky," one of the earth ponies said, looking at Trixie's body intently. " Eye are tinged green around the irises. She's in the first stages. We can still save her."

"So I see, corporal." The unicorn nodded in the earth pony's direction. "Good call. Let's see if the changeling won't release her willingly. I'd rather not use force."

The unicorn switched his attention to me, glaring harshly. From the way the others acted, and by the fact he seemed to have extra armor on, he was the leader. He walked up to Trixie's body, looking it, and me, right in the eyes.

"I'm giving you one chance, changeling," he said loudly. "Release this poor mare from your grasp, and maybe we'll let you go."

"Fat chance," I spat back at him. His head twitched towards my body, being spoken to by two beings at the same time obviously unnerving.

"What's going on, sir?" another pegasus asked. "We've only seen this with a few Drones, never with Elites."

"Filthy bug must know more magic," another answered, but an earth pony shook his head.

"No, I read the briefs. Certain changelings have certain abilities. The only ones... who... can..." The pony trailed off, his eyes widening as he realized something, probably horrifying, if his reaction was any clue.

The rest of the Royal Guardsponies recoiled away from my body, all of them giving it looks of awe, fear, and horror.

"By Faust..." the unicorn whispered. "It's him!"

"Then that means that Commander wasn't kidding..." an earth pony said gravely. "Ponyville really is..."

"Gone," I interrupted, grinning. "Wiped off the map."

At my words, the Guardsponies regained their composure, anger clearly present on their faces. The unicorn's horn lit up bright yellow, then quickly shot off a bolt that impacted Trixie's body between the eyes, sending it to the ground.

As the bolt hit, I felt myself being ripped out of Trixie's body, her senses fading away in the blink of an eye. I was forced back into my own body, a stinging sensation at the base of my horn following immediately. My vision blurred and shifted, and the ponies' next few words were lost to my muffled hearing.

I hissed and closed my eyes, waiting until the throbbing went away before opening them again. The unicorn that had performed the spell on Trixie was smirking, his horn still aglow.

"You changeling Commanders aren't so tough, are you?" he asked, getting a few chuckles from his subordinates. "And here I was, thinking you were going to be a nightmare to put down. You're going to die like the rest of your kind."

A weak moan next to me distracted the unicorn. The rest of the Guardsponies kept their attention on me while he shifted over to Trixie, who had fallen to the ground. gently placing a hoof on her shoulder.

"Miss, are you alright?" he asked, getting a startled gasp in reply. "This changeling had you under his influence. But you're safe now. The Royal Guard is here to help."

Trixie stood up, looking a the Guard uncertainly. She then looked to me, fear plainly visible. I gave her a firm look, not trying to scare her or enforce my rules. The unicorn helped her to her hooves, having her stand behind the other Guardsponies.

"Now," the unicorn said, turning back to me. "Your time is up, insect."

Our eyes met, neither of us blinking. I knew these guards wouldn't be pushovers, and I would have to be on my guard. I wasn't entirely sure I could take them all on my own...

"Trixie Lulamoon," I said loudly, getting the mare's attention, and a flinch.

"Revenant?"

I broke eye contact with the unicorn, looking past his subordinates, directly to her.

"It's your choice to side with these ponies or me," I told her. "If you think they can kill me, then side with them and have your freedom. If you know that I'm better than all of them, then help me, and you will have proven your worth, loyalty, and... courage."

"I..." she began.

"It's all lies, miss," the pegasus next to her assured, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "He's a changeling, they're all betrayers and liars."

I hissed. "You don't know anything about betrayal."

The unicorn in front of me planted his hooves wide apart, getting ready to fight me.

"Enough talk, murderer," he spat. "You're going to pay for what your kind did to Ponyville, and to Canterlot two years ago."

I began focusing my magic, my horn lighting up green.

"Idiot," I said, my wings buzzing. "You're on the wrong end of this. You're just prey."

I glanced over to Trixie, who had a single tear rolling down her cheek. I could just barely make out what she was saying.

"Celestia... Luna... forgive me." she whispered, her horn lighting up pink.

And with that, everyling sprang into action.

The unicorn in front of me fired several magical bolts at me, but they all missed as I flew into the air. Three pegasi lept into the sky after me.

The fourth was distracted as Trixie's horn was encased in a magical blade, and as she quickly turned, jumped back, and brought her head down, she cut open a wide gash in the guard's armor and severed his leg at the shoulder. His armor melted on contact, and his flesh was burnt away even past the severed limb. He fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

Six ponies left.

The three pegasi that were left circled around me. I focused my magic into a beam that blasted out at one, but just missed him. Keeping the beam up, I swept it into the path of the next pegasus, melting the armor on his back and burning off his tail. With the molten metal flowing down his body and quickly cooling, his wings were quickly locked in place. He fell the the ground like a rock.

Five.

The other two pegasi stopped circling me, seeing how bad of an idea that was. Instead, they just charged me, beginning a series of strikes that was slow to them, but combined, was fast enough that all I could do was use my superior agility to avoid or block.

I growled to myself. I couldn't find an opening with these pegasi, they were just too fast. Getting an idea, I stopped my wings, instantly dropping out of the sky. I turned quickly so that I was falling head first, a spark of magic creating a protective cone around me as I streaked towards the ground.

Trixie was holding the two earth ponies at a stalemate, her magical blade having already broken one of their spears. However, she couldn't get any closer without opening herself up to a counterattack.

The leader of the guards had turned his attention away from me and was circling Trixie, attempting to attack her from behind. I was too close to the ground to angle myself towards him, so I instead angled towards the spearless earth pony.

The guards didn't notice me at all, and I crashed into him without interference. I heard a loud cracking, followed by the earth pony yelling in pain. I quickly became aware of the heat of molten armor clinging to my chitin, and I jumped away from the guard before I burned myself.

Four left.

The other earth pony was distracted by my crash-landing, and Trixie used that opportunity to slice his spear in half. He looked down in surprise at his stump of a weapon for a split second, before I leapt at him, punching him across the face and clamping my fangs down on his exposed neck. The guard yelled for a split second, then gritted his teeth and started slamming his armor-clad hooves against my head. Hard.

The first hit hurt.

The second made me loosen my grip.

Three... I felt a dull ache in my head...

Four...

I let go, falling to the ground on the edge of unconsciousness. My vision was blurred, and I could just make out an earth pony...

...no...pegasus...?

...when... when did it become nighttime...?

When did dirt become sand...?

The... pegasus... reared up, his hooves high in the air...

A sudden jolt ran through my body.

_Not again._

_NEVER. AGAIN._

The night vanished, back to day. The pegasus vanished, now an earth pony. The sand became dirt once more. I lunged at the guard, latching onto his throat. Bright red blood spurted from where I bit in, and I could taste his blood in my mouth. The pony gurgled for a second, then collapsed to the ground.

I let go of the pony's throat, panting heavily. Trixie gaped at me in horror, the unicorn behind her doing the same. I hissed and started to walk towards him, feeling my entire body tremble with a strange excitement.

I heard the flapping of wings, then quickly rolled to the side to dodge the pegasus guard that slammed hooves-first into the ground, his face twisted with rage. Snorting with irritation, I tackled him to the ground, then fired a bolt of magic point-blank into his face. He didn't even get a chance to cry out.

One.

I turned back to the unicorn Guardspony, who had taken advantage of his comrade's death and was now engaged in a duel with Trixie. Bolts flew back and forth, neither pony staying still long enough to be hit. Trixie was on the defensive mostly, a burn on her shoulder showing where the unicorn had caught her off guard.

I watched as the two continued to battle each other, wanting to see if Trixie would get herself killed or not. The guard stopped firing for a moment, then let off a burst of tiny bolts that was impossible for Trixie to dodge. She dropped to the ground, covering her hooves as the miniature bolts mostly flew over her, but still suffered several small burns along her back.

The guard looked down at her regretfully, then closed his eyes as his horn's glow increased in intensity. Realizing what he was going to do, I ran towards Trixie, preparing my own magic in preparation to fend off the beam that the guard was about to fire.

I leapt in front of Trixie, hissing the Royal Guard. He opened his eyes, looking shocked, but quickly switched to a look of hatred.

"You two have killed enough!" he shouted, rearing up. "By Celestia's Sun, I will not let you kill any more!"

I hissed loudly before responding. "Go to Tartarus! I'll send you there myself!"

With that, the unicorn brought his hooves down, firing a massive yellow beam of magic. I fired my own green beam, and the two rushed towards each other, meeting and clashing together in between us.

I pushed as hard as I could, forcing more and more magic into my attack in order to overwhelm to guard, who remained still even as the clashing beams of magic slowly inched towards him. I grinned as victory inched closer and closer.

Just as it seemed like I was going to obliterate the guard, I felt a _massive_ push force my attack away from the guard. His yellow beam slowly forced away my green one, gaining speed as it repulsed my attack and my magic reserves began to run out.

I panicked as the clashing center of our attacks moved towards me, putting every last bit of magic I could muster into pushing back the unicorn's beam. I managed to force us into a stalemate, but it would only last as long as I could keep my attack going.

I felt a warm body press against mine.

I felt a horn tip touch my own.

A sudden burst of magic joined mine, and I watched wide-eyed as a pink beam of magic intertwined with mine. The two curled around one another, forming a spiral of magic that pulsed once, twice.

Then flew towards the guard, completely overpowering him.

The pink-green spiral expanded as it reached the guard, flowing around his body until Trixie and I stopped the flow of magic.

In the guard's place was a pile of ashes and molten metal.

I let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground, Trixie sitting down next to me. I waited for a moment, then turned to her.

"Trixie..." I said. "Thank-"

I was interrupted by the mare throwing her hooves around my neck and squeezing with all her strength.

"Revenant," she said softly. "I'm so sorry."

I blinked.

"What for?" I asked, completely confused. "For once, you-"

"I saw it all."

I froze as Trixie pulled back, tears in her eyes. She looked at me strangely, without fear, without her weak hatred, without mindless submission.

It was a look of pity.

"Pyrite, Parasite, Ponyville," she said, her voice shaking. "I saw what you saw, felt what you felt. Everything up until just now."

"How...?" I asked, stunned.

"I don't know. But I know why you hate me so much, why you are who you are."

Trixie pulled me into another hug, and I felt a few tears run down my back. I tasted something bitter in my mouth, and just the slightest bit of being fed. I didn't know how to respond.

Trixie pulled away slowly, wiping her eyes and motioning towards the road.

"Come on, Revenant."

I looked around at the bodies of the Royal Guards littered around us. With a small snarl, I nodded, getting up with Trixie and leaving the remains behind us. With a flash, I shapeshifted back into Jade Feather.

"Manehattan, here we come."


	12. Journey (Pt 3)

With the Royal Guards take care of, Trixie and I continued along the road to Manehattan, leaving the bodies where they laid in the dirt. Trixie had eyed them for a little too long, looking extremely off-put for a while before I grabbed her and dragged her along for a bit.

We were currently walking side by side in silence. Trixie had opened her mouth a few times, looking like she was going to say something, but she always stopped as soon as she look at me. It was getting a little irritating, but I let it go. She _had_ just helped me disintegrate another pony, stepping in as soon as the fight turned against me.

Still, I was conflicted over how to feel towards Trixie. She suddenly didn't seem so bad, having helped me when the more attractive option would have been much easier to take. But then, I knew she felt pity for me, which was absolutely disgusting. Being pitied made me angry, almost to the point where I wanted to beat Trixie senseless. I kept myself from doing so, only because she might be useful, if what had happened earlier was any indication.

A loud rumbling came from next to me.

I pushed Trixie behind me, taking her place and hissing lowly at the grassy field. I strained my ears to hear whatever animal was hiding, searching black and forth with my eyes for any rustling grass.

"Uh, Revenant?" Trixie asked.

"Quiet!" I hissed, still searching the grass.

"That was...um... me..." she said meekly.

I blinked, then sighed aggravatedly and rolled my eyes.

"I take it you're hungry?" I asked, getting a small nod. "There's grass all around us. Don't ponies eat that?"

Trixie looked around at the high grass all around us.

"Well, I guess... it's kind of high, though."

I turned to her and gave her a glare.

"Eat now, or not at all," I said simply. "Either way, I'm going to give you a few minutes."

Trixie looked at the grass and sighed pitifully. She stepped forward and clamped her mouth around a few tall green stalks, pulling away suddenly to snap them away from the rest. She chewed slowly and went in for another bite.

I let Trixie continue to eat her grass in peace, turning my thoughts back to just before we had run into the Royal Guards. Specifically, the mind battle we had had.

Something seemed off about Trixie. I hadn't really been paying attention to it in the heat of the fight, but now that I looked back it seemed a lot more obvious. The only other thing I had to compare her mental self to was Parasite, but even then there seemed to be something wrong with her. What really irritated me wasn't that I didn't know what it was, but that she didn't know herself. As far as I knew her amnesia was still in place, which meant she couldn't tell me unless it just came to her out of the blue.

Another thing that had been off was how I simply knew Parasite's shield spell. I had never seen or been taught how to cast it, yet it came to me as if the Voice had given it to me herself. It was extremely off-putting.

I quickly shapeshifted back to my regular self, then summoned up my magic and tried to cast the spell again. Just as I thought, a green bubble blinked into existence just above my head, quickly falling down around me. Trixie, startled, jumped and turned to look behind her, a bit of grass hanging out of her mouth. I gave her a flat look.

"Done eating then?" I asked.

Trixie shook her head slowly.

I jerked my head towards the grass, signalling for her to finish grazing. She didn't move a muscle until I sighed and released the shield, the bubble popping and disappearing. Slightly freaked out, Trixie turned back to the tall grass and continued to eat.

I changed back to Jade Feather with a flash. A shiver ran down my back, accompanied by a sinking feeling in my gut.

"That's it..." I muttered. "Come on Trixie, we're moving on."

Trixie grabbed another mouthful of grass, having cleared out a good-sized path next to the road. She chewed the last bit as we continued towards Manehattan, letting out a short, relieved sigh when she was finished.

"Thank you," she said.

"You earned it," I shrugged. "You've got my respect, at least for now."

"Really?" she asked in wonder. "I never tho-"

A sudden choking sound cut her off. I turned and gaped at the sight of Trixie being held in the air by a number of ropes. A dull amber glow enveloped the ropes.

"I thought as such."

I turned back around to see the familiar long coat and fedora on the familiar Brass Visions. I growled lowly at her.

"Let her go, now." I said through clenched teeth.

Brass Visions ignored me, looking up at Trixie, who was struggling against the ropes that quickly bound her legs and wrapped around her horn, tugging her head back.

"I had considered that you would come back," Brass spoke in her monotone voice. "However, I did not anticipate who, or what, you would bring with you."

"What, those other changelings?" I asked. "I never had anything to do with them. I trust them almost as much as I trust ponies."

"You are lying." Brass focused on me. "Before, I could not see. But now, my eyes have been opened."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Visions looked at the ground, drawing some symbols in the dirt with her hoof.

"Upon becoming a Watcher, I returned to Ponyville. The resonant magical energy was still strong. That massive changeling was powerful, almost too powerful for itself. It had a very distinct signature that was present long after it had left."

She looked back up at me.

"There was also a void. A space where no signature existed at all. As I recall, it was located in the same spot as the portal your accomplice used to leave."

"For the last time, I didn't-"

"The signature your smaller accomplice left behind was fragmented by the void. It was difficult to recognize, but it was intensely similar to the behemoth."

"What are you getting at?" I asked impatiently. "Tell me before I rip you to pieces."

"This next piece of information is quite interesting," Brass continued, completely unfazed. "Looking at you now, I see that your signature is quite similar to those other two changelings. The similarity was akin to that I have detected between siblings."

Her words shocked me out of my anger at seeing her again. Her gaze kept on me as I tried to find some sign she was lying.

"That's ridiculous," I said, planting my hooves apart and preparing to charge her. "I have nothing to do with those other changelings."

"Whether you ordered them to attack Ponyville or not is irrelevant." Brass released Trixie, who fell to the ground and started coughing. "The fact remains that the changelings have an interest in you. Killing you right now would only provoke them further. I am sworn to protect those left of Ponyville, and as such I will leave you to your devices."

Without anything else, Brass Visions vanished.

I walked over to Trixie. She coughed a few more times and rubbed her neck before looking up at me. She nodded to signal she was okay, then stood up and rubbed her horn.

"Revenant?" she asked. "Was she..."

"No." I shook my head. "I don't know any other changelings beside Parasite. And he's dead."

Trixie flinched as I said that, then looked at the ground.

"I don't think he is..." she whispered.

"Yes, he is." I glared at her. "I know he is, I killed him with my mind. I felt his body stop and die. He's gone."

I shook my head and turned back to the road.

"I say he is, so he is. And be thankful, because he was the one who had you trapped in his lair. Now let's go. The farther we are from Manehattan, the more we're going to run into things we shouldn't."

The rest of the trip to Manehattan was peaceful. Trixie and I kept to ourselves, but it was a comfortable silence, like we had nothing to say and didn't need to. The grass thinned out before long, becoming short and well-kept. Off to either side I could see tall vegetable plants, signaling a number of farms.

As we got closer and closer to Manehattan, the road... changed. It wasn't dirt anymore. It was something... else...

_Asphalt..._

Asphalt. It was called asphalt. A black, hard surface that looked like thousands of pebbles stuck together.

Small houses sat on the outskirts of the city, whose tall buildings loomed in the distance ahead. The houses were all boarded up and abandoned, something that set both of us on edge. We stuck to the road, which was far away enough from the houses that the tense atmosphere didn't press down on us too much.

"What happened here?" Trixie asked aloud. "Where is everypony?"

"No idea. Looks like they all left."

"Well, yes, but where did they go?"

I shrugged. "I'd guess Manehattan. Who knows?"

"What do you think drove them away?"

"Let's hope it wasn't more changelings. It's bad enough we're going to another pony-filled area. I don't want to be looking for capable fighters among a weak and useless crowd. Especially considering they can look like anyling, at any time."

As we approached the entrance to Manehattan, I noticed that there was a makeshift wooden gate set up. About a dozen Royal Guards were either patrolling or standing at the gate with spears at the ready.

"Just stay next to me," I told Trixie. "Don't say anything unless they talk to you specifically."

Trixie stepped a little closer to me, and we approached the gate. The guards eyed as we got closer and closer, but otherwise did nothing. I thought that we were going to get in without any trouble, until a guard with no helmet stepped out in front of us.

"Halt," he commanded, holding up a hoof. "What is your business here?"

"Refugees," I answered, thinking up the best lie I could. "We're from Ponyville."

"Ponyville?" The guard frowned. "What are you talking about? A patrol was sent there just yesterday, they would have reported anything back here."

I looked down at the ground and did my best to look depressed.

"Ponyville... it's gone. Just... gone..."

"Impossible." The guard turned back to the gate. "Needle Edge, front and center!"

I jumped in surprise at a sudden muffled scraping on the asphalt. I looked up to see a grey mare clothed in a long coat and fedora standing next to the guard.

"Reporting for duty, Captain," the mare said in a flat voice.

"Check Ponyville. See if what this mare is saying is true."

The mare nodded, then disappeared as the space around her folded over her. The captain kept us waiting a few moments before the grey mare returned.

"Completely gone," she reported.

The captain's eyes widened. He looked back to us, then to the mare, then back to us.

"V... very well then..." he breathed. "You may enter. Stay out of trouble. Remember, there are eyes everywhere."

The guard signalled to the other on top of the gate. The doors creaked open, allowing us to head into the city. I nodded in thanks to the guard, but he had already turned his attention back to the mare and was conversing with her in hushed voices.

For a moment, I was slightly afraid as Trixie and I passed under through the gate, and into Manehattan proper. I was waiting for someling to point me out, to say I wasn't who I said I was. But thankfully, it never happened.

The gate creaked closed behind us, sealing us inside the pony city.

"Wow..." Trixie murmured. "I... I don't think I've ever seen anything like this..."

Manehattan was about as different from Ponyville as it was possible to be. Instead of wood and straw houses, these buildings were made of bricks of all reds, browns, and even greys. They stretched much higher than the buildings of Ponyville, almost to the point where they could block out the sky. Unlike the outskirts, these buildings were full of ponies, open windows allowing voices to spill out where they could be heard in the streets.

The streets themselves were all asphalt. Ponies, in groups and alone, hustled and bustled back and forth. A few took notice of us before turning back to whatever had their attention before we did. There was an air of gloominess in Manehattan, one that seemed to float around the three-pony patrols of Royal Guards that stuck out among the crowds.

"This is wrong..." Trixie said to me. "It's not supposed to be like this..."

"Don't care," I responded. "We need to find someplace to stay first."

We set off through the streets, sticking close to one another so we didn't get split up by the crowds going to a fro. I kept looking around us, still amazed by how different Manehattan was from Ponyville. It was far more busy, and much less cheery, though that might have been because of all the guards patrolling the streets.

All the while, Trixie muttered to herself next to me. Her amnesia seemed to be fading little by little the more we saw of Manehattan. Though as it seemed, even her memories wouldn't be of much use right now, given how different she kept saying things were.

"Where's the candy shop?"

"Oh no, what happened to the park?"

"That wasn't there before..."

I grimaced. Trixie didn't seem too happy with the changes, and since things were so different from her memories, that meant she couldn't guide us around, or at least not very well.

"This isn't how I remember things at all..." Trixie said in a depressed tone. "I'm just remembering now, and I can't even remember something useful."

"Relax," I said, to my surprise. "It's obvious you haven't been here in a while. Just stop flipping out over it, I don't need you collapsing in the street."

'_There it is,_' I thought with a smirk.

We strolled about aimlessly for a little while, until the sky began to darken and the day was almost over.

"Hail, civilized ponies of Manehattan!" a loud female voice boomed throughout the city. "The sun hath finished its glorious display for you this day! And once more, we shall grace you with the serenity of the night!"

Numerous groans came from all around us.

"However, as you all know, curfew shall soon be in effect! We advise that all find shelter indoors, for tonight, the 29th Guard Platoon shall be performing inspections!"

All the ponies around us froze, then began to bolt off in various directions, in varying states of panic. Trixie and I simply stood where we were as they ran, not understanding what they were panicking for.

Suddenly, I felt a pony run straight into me, sending me crashing into Trixie. The three of us fell in a heap, completely confused. I was the first to get myself out of the pile, shaking my head and watching as Trixie and another mare pulled themselves to their hooves.

The earth pony mare had a baby blue coat, coupled with a brown mane and tail, both of which were very well kept. She also wore a pink bowtie, and had a musical symbol on her flank.

"Oh my..." she groaned, holding her head. "Terribly sorry about that. Do forgive me, I didn't mean to..."

The mare stopped and gaped at us. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she finally spoke.

"T...trixie? Trixie Lulamoon?" she asked. "The Wondrous and Flashy?"

Trixie blinked in surprise. She looked at me for a second, but I just shrugged. She turned back to the mare.

"Yes... my name is Trixie. Who are you?"

The mare deflated a bit at that, looking down at the ground.

"Oh... well..." she said sadly. "I suppose I shouldn't expect you to remember me... my name is Beauty Brass."

"Nice to, uh, meet you," Trixie gave an unsure smile. "Have... have we met before?"

"You could say that..." Beauty brightened up a little. "Do you remember? We were good friends in elementary school. Not the best of friends, you never got that close to anypony. But I helped you put on your first show."

Trixie winced and shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry. I... don't remember that."

"How could you not remember your first show?" Beauty asked incredulously. "With the fireworks, the illusions, and the huge crowd?"

"She has amnesia." I jumped into the conversation. "She doesn't remember anything past a few days. Well, a few exceptions, but you understand."

Beauty Brass put a hoof to her mouth. She looked between us and gave Trixie a sympathetic look.

"That's just awful!" she exclaimed. "This must be fixed, immediately! Come with me!"

Trixie and I looked at one another. I shrugged again, and we followed Beauty Brass through the still-panicking crowd.

The ponies were all scrambling to get indoors, closing shops, locking doors, and turning the once lively, if gloomy, city into a ghost town. A few guards eyed us as we passed them, but otherwise left us alone. One or two nodded at us, small smiles on their faces. I managed to sip up a few inklings of more-than-fond feelings from them.

They were trained well, I'd give them that.

Beauty Brass stopped us outside of a rather small, boarded up building, at least by Manehattan standards. She turned to us and spoke lowly.

"Now, first things first," she said seriously. "Everything here is my treat. You don't need to pay for anything. Simply mention me, and the staff will give you whatever you like, within reason of course. Second, this little after-hours place is very popular, so be sure not to tell any of the guardsponies about it, hmm?"

"Wow, thanks," Trixie said sincerely. "Jade Feather and I never thought anypony would be this nice."

"Think nothing of it," Beauty waved a hoof dismissively. "All I ask is a chance to catch up with you, old friend."

"She'd be happy to," I smile. "It'll be good for her."

With that, Beauty opened the door for us, and we walked inside.

Immediately, the heat hit us.

Ponies were packed together inside, lights flashing, music booming. It was a wonder that none of the noise spilled out into the streets. Booths were all around the edge of the club, and a large bar tended to by two earth pony mares. A unicorn DJ stood at the far end of the room, running the music that always held a lively beat.

"Jade Feather, was it?" Beauty Brass asked. "We'll be in that booth, over in the corner. Feel free to have a good time."

I nodded and let the two of them go off.

Unsure of what to do, I started by getting a feeling for the atmosphere in the club. The sheer joy everyling was giving off was enough to feed me a little bit, though some of it had a distorted and disgusting taste to it. Still, I soaked it all in without much thought.

Before long, I felt myself begin to move in time with the music being played. It wasn't like any instrument I had ever heard, but it felt... right. Like it was music without being music. The grating, the heavy beats, the eager and lively pulses, they made me feel alive. And they all sounded so wonderfully familiar...

Eventually though, the music wound down as the DJ took a vinyl disc off its turntable and put it away. The unicorn's horn lit up and allowed it to project its voice throughout the entire club.

"Alright everypony, I can see we're all loving the 'Faith Plate'!" the DJ said enthusiastically, getting massive applause. "Now here's a little special we're doing tonight, and maybe a little more in the future! Can you say, 'karaoke'?"

The crowd went wild, ponies clamoring for a chance to sing and amaze the rest of the DJ scanned the throng carefully, trying to pick out the right pony to either embarrass or give a huge opportunity to. I smirked as I imagined Pyrite making a fool of herself up onstage.

"First time here?"

An extremely tough-looking earth pony stallion slid up next to me. His entire body was a blood red, with a red and black mane and tail and brilliant blue eyes. I noticed for a moment that his flank had a solid black circle emblazoned with a golden '9' on it.

"Yeah," I replied, the stallion making me a little uneasy. "Never been to a nightclub before."

"I see," the stallion smirked. "You'll enjoy yourself here, I promise."

"Jade Feather," I said.

"Nineball," he replied. "Nineball Seraph. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss."

I smiled at him as earnestly as I could. He chuckled and looked to the DJ.

"Wave Buzz!" he yelled, pointing to me. "Over here!"

The DJ's face lit up as he pointed to me as well.

"You, miss! How would you like a chance to do the very first karaoke the Night Shift club has ever seen!?"

I gaped at Nineball.

"Oh go on," he said. "I bet they'll love you. Noling could resist a mare such as you."

I sighed and nodded. I would look like a complete fool if I backed out now. I spread my wings and glided over the crowd to land on the stage. I faced the crowd and waved meekly, getting a loud cheer in reply.

"Alright miss, what's your name?" Wave Buzz asked with an honest grin.

"Jade Feather."

"You hear that everypony? Let's hear it for Jade Feather!"

More applause.

"Now just do what comes naturally, eh?" Wave Buzz winked at me, before amplifying his voice again. "After all, we wouldn't want her to remain a stranger!"

Wave Buzz put a new disc on, then fiddled with a few knobs and switches before nodding to me. The music started, quickly building to a high pitch before dropping down low, then starting its thick beats in earnest. It sounded familiar, and before I knew it, the words were pouring from my mouth, amplified by Wave Buzz's spell to reach the entire crowd.

"_I've come here from nowhere, across the unforgiving sea._"

The crowd went wild.

"_Drifting further and further, it's all becoming clear to m_

_The violent winds are upon us and I can't sleep..._

_Internal temperatures rising, and all the voices won't recede..._"

Yes, this song... I knew it. I knew it from somewhere, and I would never forget it. I could feel the immense amount of excitement and adoration rolling off the crowd, and I consumed it all without a second thought. The huge energy boost made my heart beat faster and faster, and I felt just as excited as they did.

"_I've finally found what I was looking for!_

_A place where I can be, without, remorse,_

_Because I am a stranger who has found an even stranger war..._

_I've finally found what I was looking for!_

_Here I come, come, come, come..._"

Yes! I could feel it! I grinned as widely as I could, feeling the excitement within me. I felt so alive! I was practically bathed in magic as I continued to absorb all the affection the crowd had towards me.

"_La chaleur me dérange..._

_Mais c'est le grincement du bateau qui m'a réveillé..._

_I sharpen the knife,_

_And look down upon the pale..._

_For all of my life, a stranger I remain!_

_A stranger I remain!_

_A stranger I remain!_"

The song's last heavy beats died out, but the cheering of the crowd continued. I smiled and waved, bringing forth even greater stomping of hooves and loud whistles of approval. I felt invincible. I felt like I could take on that massive changeling by myself, and win.

"Thank you, Jade Feather!" Wave Buzz said. "That was some singing, eh everypony!? Now, who wants to have the next shot?"

Just like that, the attention faded from me. But the love and adoration hadn't, so I graciously made my way off the stage and over to Trixie and Beauty Brass feeling better than I ever thought possible.

"That was something, Jade," Beauty said with a smirk. "Never would have guessed you could pull that off."

"I'm full of surprises," I smiled, sliding into the booth next to Trixie, whom I winked at.

"Yes, she is..." the unicorn said with a half-hearted smile.

"So, what are your plans?" Beauty asked. "Trixie here tells me you're from Ponyville. Refugees, she says. Honestly, that's the first I've heard of any trouble from that area."

"It's true," I say. "Huge changeling came and wrecked the whole town. We got out without a scratch, but other weren't so lucky. Oh well."

"You seem awfully cheery about such a thing." Beauty eyed me. "A little too cheery."

"Aw, it's not so bad," I waved her off. "We're doing way better here than we ever did in Ponyville. Nopony really like me, though I can't say for Trixie."

I looked over to see Trixie gritting her teeth and shaking with suppressed anger. I gave her a friendly nudge.

"Hey Trixie, calm down," I smiled. "We don't need to worry about anypony besides us three, right here."

"She's got a point," Beauty said with a smile of her own. "Though I suppose I can't expect you to be as cheery as she is. After all, you didn't just bask in the love of an entire crowd."

My smile snaps away instantly.

"Say again?" I ask politely.

"What? Anypony would be in a good mood after having an entire club cheer for them."

"Oh," I blink. "I see."

We sat in silence for a while, the air around our table becoming more solemn. I shifted uneasily and looked back to the crowd, wanting to be the center of attention again. But I knew that I shouldn't show off again, at least not tonight. In order to keep their interest, I needed to not be a regular thing.

Unable to bear the lack of conversation, I started to talk to Beauty Brass. We went back and forth, trading tales and facts about each other. I lied about almost everything, but Beauty believed every word I said.

I learned that she was a professional musician, playing the sousaphone. She had been in Manehattan almost all her life, having only occasionally traveled to other places in Equestria. She did play in the Grand Galloping Gala, which I knew to be the biggest get-together in Equestria. She knew Trixie since they were fillies, and was very upset that Trixie couldn't remember her.

I also picked up a bit on what was happening around Manehattan. Apparently, changelings were being discovered all across Equestria. They had been replacing high-level ponies, but from what Beauty told me, a new force called the 'Watchers' had been rooting the changelings out wherever they found them. The Royal Guard was being set up in every city, town, and hamlet there was, defending their fellow ponies against more than a few changeling attacks.

"The worst part?" Beauty grimaced. "Those monsters... nopony knows for a fact where they live. From what I heard, they show up, cause some mindless destruction and hurt any number of ponies, then vanish. The Guard has no idea how to defend against them."

"I don't think they can..." I said. "Trixie can tell you the same thing. When we ran from Ponyville, there was a huge changeling, bigger than city hall. The entire place was gone before we knew it."

"Sound right." Beauty nodded. "The Guard gave out pamphlets to everypony they could when they arrived. Said there wasn't just one kind of changeling anymore. And to think, it's been almost two years..."

"Two years?"

"Two years since the 'Siege of Canterlot', as they're calling it." Beauty shivered. "Honestly, sometimes I can't sleep at night, knowing those monsters could be anywhere."

I shrugged.

"Trust in the guard," I assured her, nearly making myself sick with those words. "They'll keep us safe."

"I hope so."

A silence fell between us. The crowd in the club had thinned out, ponies going home for the night at last. Beauty Brass soon left, wishing us well and saying she hoped to see us again.

I continued to sit with Trixie, who stared at the table like she had been doing since Beauty and I started talking. I could tell there was something on her mind.

"Something wrong?" I asked, for once genuinely concerned.

"Everything..." Trixie murmured. "This isn't... I can't..."

She closed her eyes and sighed shakily.

"What I remember of Manehattan... all of it's wrong." She looked up at me. "You're lucky... you don't have anything to remember, nothing to forget."

I looked off to the side.

"Honestly? I don't know if that's true or not. I... remember things, but I don't know if I really have those memories or not. Almost everything I know, I've been told."

"I know."

I looked at Trixie.

"Exactly how much do you know about me?"

"Everything."

"And?" I narrowed my eyes.

Trixie opened her mouth to respond, but closed it and looked past me. I turned to see a smirking Nineball standing at the end of our booth.

"Club's closing, ladies," he said. "As much as I hate to say it, you're going to have to wait until the next night to come back."

He looked at me and grinned wider.

"Unless you'd be willing to share quarters, that is."

I smiled and tried not to vomit.

"That's quite alright," I said. "We were just leaving. Come on Trixie."

I moved to leave the booth and the club, but Nineball trapped me.

"Trixie Lulamoon?" he asked. "Really now? Well may I say, my parents will be happy to hear you're in town. They've taken quite an interest in you."

"Oh really?" Trixie asked, forcing a small smile. "That's... nice."

"Indeed it is," Nineball agreed, suddenly turning and leaving us.

He went to the far back of the club, disappearing behind a door I hadn't noticed before. Trixie and I looked at one another, then made our way out of the club a little more quickly than we might have otherwise. Once outside, I realized we had a problem.

"We have nowhere to stay," I said grimly. "This is wonderful..."

"What are we going to do?" Trixie asked.

"Sleep in an alleyway until we find someplace to stay, I guess."

Trixie sighed dejectedly, but otherwise didn't complain. I patted her on the head, and we set off through the streets once more.

Luckily, we didn't run into any more Royal Guards, which was a huge relief. Finding a good alleyway, however, was difficult. Now that we were paying attention to them, we found out that most of the alleys had trash everywhere. Other homeless ponies, dirty and messy, were in an alley here and there. Sometimes a few were clustered around a fire, but I had no intention of joining them.

It took a while, but eventually we came to an alleyway that was mostly clear of trash and vacant in between some kind of magic shop and an abandoned building that looked ready to fall down. We quickly entered, plopping down with a mixture of relief and misery.

"I guess this is where we'll be staying for a while..." I said.

"I guess..." Trixie replied.

I curled up and closed my eyes, allowing sleep to wash over me even though I felt as energized as I had ever been. Trixie did the same across from me, though it was clear she was far more tired by the way she sprawled out.

I was about to fall asleep when her voice grabbed my attention.

"Revenant?" she said softly.

I wasn't sure whether to be upset at her for using my real name with ponies all around us, but I let it go.

"Yes?"

"I'm cold..."

"Sorry to hear that."

Another moment of silence passed.

"Could we...um... sleep together?"

My eyes shot open. A bitter taste filled my mouth.

"Will you sleep if we do?" I sighed, not believing I was agreeing to actually... cuddling up with Trixie.

She didn't respond with words, instead just nodding and looking at me. I sighed and scooched over to her. Trixie wrapped her hooves around my neck and buried her face in my chest. I rolled my eyes as hard as I could, but eventually I could hear Trixie's breathing signal that she was asleep.

So with a bitter taste in my mouth and Trixie cuddling up to me, I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.


	13. Callings

I was jolted awake by the sound of shattering glass.

I instantly snapped upright, focused and alert. The first thing I noticed was that Trixie was missing. The second thing I noticed was that there were a few glass shards laying in the street, shining in the moonlight. I exited the alley and looked to my left to see the front window of the magic shop broken open from the inside.

Trixie was walking stiffly and slowly into the shop, her magic flickering on and off. So far the window was the only thing she had broken, but I didn't want to take the chance of her breaking anything else and waking up anypony. I jumped and glided through the window, taking care to avoid the shattered glass. I landed just behind Trixie and tapped her flank.

"Trixie, I don't know what you're doing, but you need to stop," I whispered to her. "If you want, we can take whatever bits we can find, but the last thing we need is the Royal Guard on us."

Trixie ignored me, stepping forward even more slowly, murmuring to herself. Her horn was now pulsing steadily, providing a light for us to see by. I looked around us at a variety of books, strange herbs, and a crystal here and there. I had no idea what Trixie was looking for, but that didn't matter much.

"Trixie, let's go," I said firmly, giving her tail a small yank.

Without warning, Trixie's horn flared up, casting a magical bolt back at me. I just barely managed to avoid it, jumping to the side and trying not to knock anything over. Trixie continued to walk ahead, muttering all the way. Now I was mad.

"Alright, that's it," I growled, jumping over Trixie and landing in front of her. "Who do you-"

I stopped as soon as I saw her face.

Small cuts dotted her face, likely from the glass breaking. Blood leaked from all of them, rolling down her face, and her wide, unblinking gaze was almost scary. I noticed that it wasn't just her face she had hurt, but her chest and legs as well. Blood flowed slowly, but constantly, and I took a step back from her.

"Trixie, are you alright?" I asked, mildly creeped out by her injuries.

"...ak ...me ...who..." she whispered incredibly softly. "...ake ...me ...gre ...nd ...pow ...ul..."

"What?"

Trixie pushed past me, stopping at the counter at the back of the shop. She sat down and moaned softly, her pink glow of magic sparking red. I stepped up behind her and looked around, making sure we were still alone.

"What has gotten into you?" I demanded. "We're going to get caught if you keep this up. Don't think I won't mind control you again if I need to."

"Make me strong..." she murmured, loud enough for me to hear her. "I want you..."

"Okay, no." I glared at her and shapeshifted back to my changeling form. "Last chance to come away with your body, Trixie Lulamoon."

"I _need_ you!" She shivered and fell to the ground, eyes closed as she whimpered and convulsed.

"What I put up with..." I rolled my eyes and touched my horn to hers.

There was a thick grey smoke covering the ground as far as I could see. It clung to my hooves as it flowed around them, leaving them feeling chilled, but not quite cold.

I turned around at the noise of familiar sobbing to see Trixie standing up, tears rolling down her face as the smoke wrapped around her hooves, snaking up around her legs and seizing her throat, pulling on her mane, and completely enveloping her horn.

I began to step towards towards her, but abruptly a stallion formed out of the smoke, blocking me from Trixie. Its glowing red eyes glared at me, and I glared back. Neither of us made a move.

"She... she... sheeeeeee..." The stallion boomed in a hoarse voice. "Ours, now..."

"I don't think so." I stepped around the stallion to get to Trixie. "She's mine. My slave. Noling touches her but me. Get it?"

The smokey stallion made no move to stop me, only turning its head around an unnatural degree to follow my movements. We kept eye contact until I was right next to Trixie, and then I focused on trying to free her from the smoke. I tried waving it away, blowing on it, even firing a bolt or two at it, but the smoke remained where it was.

"Leave."

I looked to my side to come face to face with the smoke being. We glared at each other once more.

"You leave." I hissed back.

"We gave you a choice to go willingly." The stallion's eyes narrowed. "It would have been much easier if you accepted."

Without warning, I felt the smoke that had been flowing around my hooves suddenly surge upwards. I struggled against the unreal force it gripped me with, feeling it grab hold of my head.

"She is ours now..."

I felt a sudden force twist my head to the side, and the world went black.

My vision flashed, and I found myself stumbling away from Trixie. I was completely disoriented, the entire store was spinning and I felt like my legs would give out at any moment. I planted my hooves firmly on the ground and lowered my head until the dizzying feeling went away.

As soon as I felt like I wasn't going to fall over, I looked back up at Trixie. She had broken the front counter into pieces, and had some strange necklace in her hooves. Her eyes and smile were wide with excitement. She looked at me, an insane glint in her eye.

"Thank you, Revenant," she said loudly. "I appreciate everything."

She clipped the necklace around her neck, and both it and her immediately lit up with a blood red light. I got a good look at the necklace, recoiling in shock when I realized it was the same one I had seen back in Parasite's lair. How did it end up here?

Trixie started laughing, mildly at first, then slowly developing until her head was thrown back and the glow around her intensified into a magical aura. The aura itself then intensified, lighting bolts arcing off of Trixie's body and striking random things in the store. I faintly heard the shouts of ponies outside as they began to wake up from the noise.

Trixie ceased her laughing and looked back at me.

"Goodbye, Revenant!" she smiled. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will not forget the service you have done her!"

Before I could react, I found myself surrounded in a red glow. Trixie winked at me.

Then I found myself rocketing out of the magic store, faster than I could have ever flown by myself.

I yelled in pain as I was forced through the very solid roof, shooting into the sky above Manehattan. I yelled out again as the red aura around me turned into a crimson inferno, covering me in magical fires. It was an almost unbearable agony, feeling my entire body burning away. I dimly noticed that I had stopped rising into the sky, and that I was falling back down to the ground.

I knew that there was no was no way I would survive the fall. I tried to buzz my wings in order to slow my descent, but trying to do so just fanned the flames on my body and intensified the pain. I was practically dead already. I looked down at the entire city of Manehattan, feeling my body pick up speed as I fell.

I frantically searched my memories for anything that could help me. I wasn't going to give up, not yet. But I couldn't think of any spell, trick, or feature that could help me right now. My wings were the only thing that could save me from hitting the ground, and trying to go that route would probably turn me to a crisp before I even hit the ground

Then it hit me.

When I had first fought Pyrite in the Everfree forest, I had willingly thrown myself at the ground. A spark of magic had turned me into a living comet, and I had hit the ground completely okay. I could do the same thing here.

Through the painful haze in my mind, I willed my magic through my horn and into the air around me. The red flames pushed back, trying to force my magic back inside me. The ground was coming closer faster and faster, and I pushed harder and harder.

Finally, the flames gave.

The red inferno turned into a bright green, and I felt the pain vanish with it. It was too late to do anything else, so I impacted the ground, hard, but thankfully painlessly. The asphalt gave way, cracking and allowing me to fall through to the dirt below. The green flames exploded the moment I hit the ground, hitting every building around the street I had crashed into and catching them on fire as well.

I laid at the bottom of the crater, groaning as I tried to move my body, which still felt like it was on fire. The dirt underneath the road was cool, and felt wonderful as I laid on top of it.

Eventually, I heard the shouts of ponies from outside the crater. I looked up to see a few guards, in dark purple and black armor, stick their heads over the edge and look down at me. I hissed weakly at them. One of them pulled away and ran off, but the rest stayed and kept their eyes on me.

Not long after that, the guard that had run away returned, this time with another. The additional guard jumped down into the crater, landing on top of me. I yelled out in pain as the guard's metal shoes hit my side, and I felt at least two of my ribs break. I yelled again as the guard kicked me in the same spot.

"Filthy changeling!" she spat on my face. "Thou art fortunate that my princess dost not wish thee dead. But after our companions are finished, thou wilt wish thou was."

I coughed as the guard kicked me yet again, then jumped off of me. She then grabbed my mane, yanked me up and shoved my head against the side of the crater.

"I may not kill thou," she breathed into me ear. "Nay, I will not kill thou. But I will break thou for the pain thine kind hast caused."

The guard, still holding me by my mane, slugged me across the face. At this point, I could barely even cry out. I felt too dizzy, too exhausted to muster up anything but a short yelp every time the guard hit me. She punched me in the gut, threw me back onto the bottom of the crater, yanked on my tail, and even bit into my left wing with sharp teeth I had never thought ponies had.

"Lieutenant Leviathe, enough," a dull voice called down from the edge of the crater.

The guard, Leviathe, slowly bit down harder, then yanked away with her teeth still holding onto my wing, tearing a piece with her. I screamed as she did so, feeling my blood spurt out of my wing and onto my back. White-hot agony, far worse than the red flames, erupted from my destroyed wing.

I curled into a ball and continued screaming until my voice gave out. Even then, I kept trying to scream, forcing hoarse noises out of my throat. All the while, I could hear mumbles of conversation between the guard and what was probably another pony like Brass Visions.

I ignored them and instead concentrated on my wing. I looked back at it to see a large chunk from the top, blood flowing and occasionally spurting from where the guard had bit me. I closed my eyes and concentrated, remembering what I learned about healing magic. I cast the regeneration spell on my wing, gasping as I felt my magic reserves drain incredibly low.

In return, my wing glowed a dim green, and slowly but surely the missing part regrew, until my wing looked like it had never been hurt at all. I was still dizzy from the blood loss, however, and I knew I didn't have enough magic left to heal my ribs.

I let my head fall back down to the ground, deciding it was a good time to take a nap.

The first thing I noticed was how hungry I was.

The second thing I noticed was that my legs were restrained, and I could hardly move.

The third thing I noticed was that I was in a hospital room.

I slowly looked around myself. I was tightly tied to a hospital bed, ropes snaking in and out of the holes in my legs in order to hold me down. Every time I shifted, the ropes rubbed extremely uncomfortably on the sensitive carapace. There was a bag of boiling red blood hanging from the ceiling, a tube snaking its way down and connecting to a needle that was stabbed right into my neck.

I hissed as the ache of hunger struck me again, leaving me weak and helpless. I tried to feel for any love or even positive emotion in the air, but this hospital obviously wasn't anything like Ponyville's, because there was none to be found.

I heard the loud clopping of hooves from out in the hallway, followed by an mare in a nurse's outfit coming into my room. She was smiling, but it was obviously forced.

"Hello, Mr. Changeling," she said. "Do you know where you are?"

"Get lost," I said weakly.

The nurse's smile dropped.

"I see your mental faculties are fully intact," she said dully. "I sometimes wonder why Celestia even accepts your kind as intelligent. You're monsters, all of you."

"You're no better," I hissed. "Everything I've ever done is because of one of you."

"I don't need to hear your trickery, insect." The nurse turned and left the room. "He's awake, Ms. May."

As soon as the nurse was gone, another pony entered. It was another mare, dressed in a longcoat and fedora. Her coat was a dull grey, and her extremely long mane had hints of what might have been a silver shine. Her eyes were an almost lifeless orange, her lips tight with displeasure.

The mare came up to my bed and stood next to me, looking at me with an unreadable expression.

"Three, two, one..." she counted off.

Suddenly, the bag of blood that hung from the ceiling exploded, showing the entire room with pony blood. A few large drops landed on my face, and I licked them off while glaring at the mare.

"Savage," she said simply.

"Weakling," I shot back.

"A savage would think in terms of strength. You have justified me."

The mare took off her fedora and placed it gently on my bed.

"I am under orders to obtain information from you," she stated. "I am free to do so by any means necessary. However, I am well aware that you could desert your shell of a body in a moment, so I have created a method which will maximize prospective gain for me."

The nurse from before re-entered the room with a chair, placed it for the mare to sit, then left again. The mare drew a blank piece of paper and a quill from her longcoat, and threw them into the air, where they remained hovering in place.

"We shall start with names," the mare said, placing a hood on her chest. "My name is May."

The quill started to write on the paper. I looked at it, then at May.

"I'm not telling you anything."

The quill wrote down my words.

"I could make this very painful for you. While I may not kill you, and as Lieutenant Leviathe was so kind to demonstrate, I am free to injure you however I wish. Now, please, cooperate, and I will instruct the prison guards to bring you an extra whorse every week for your nourishment."

I blinked. "What?"

Fast as I could blink, May punched me across the face, and returned to sitting in her chair as if she had never moved.

"Revenant..." I hissed.

"Good. Now, how old are you?"

I blinked again. I honestly didn't know the answer to that question, and I was suddenly feeling very off-put.

"I... don't know."

May's gaze narrowed almost unnoticeably.

"I will assume for the sake of conversation that you do not. However, since you did not answer my question with an appropriate answer, I will not grant you a question for me to answer. Now, do you have a favorite color?"

"...green?" I shrugged.

"That is logical." May leaned back in her chair. "Now, you may ask a question of me."

"What do you want from me?"

"I do not want anything from you. Where do you live?"

"In an alley. And if you don't want anything from me, then who does?"

"My superiors. Do you have a favorite food?"

"Love, of course. What do your superiors want from me?"

"Information. Who are your accomplices?"

Without a second thought, I told her.

"Trixie Lulamoon." I grinned.

May got up and drove a hoof into my gut, forcing the breath out of my lungs.

"Do not lie to me. Trixie was the one to expose you and stop you theft. Now tell me, who are your accomplices?"

"Don't... have... any..." I wheezed.

May observed me for a moment, then reached into her coat and pulled out a small golden knife with small scrawlings on it, too small to see. She observed it for a moment, then whispered something too low for me to hear. Immediately, the blade lit up with white and orange flames.

"Corona Blades," May said aloud. "It is said they are forged in the heart of Celestia's sun, using the same metal she used to create her own armor. Nopony save the Princesses and Discord know the name of this metal, but we Watchers are well aware of its mystical properties. The blade cannot be reforged by any mortal forge, but neither will the blade dull or rust. And while it has been ages since ponykind used enchantments, I can personally attest to the ease with which these blades will take to enchanting. They are truly wondrous, god-like artifacts, to which we are blessed to hold."

May turned her gaze back to me, lifted my head up gently, and placed her Corona Blade between my neck and the bed.

"It is known that the severing the spine of a changeling will kill them," May told me. "Permanently. It is also known that Corona Blades burn hotter the more wicked the creature they are killing. You changelings are the most vile, unrepentant, villainous scum ponykind has ever come across. If you do not tell me what I wish to know, you will feel the burn of my blade."

"I thought you said you couldn't kill me," I said calmly, trying to hide my nervousness.

"It is not unheard of for interrogation subjects to commit suicide," May responded, tilting her head slightly. "I wonder how easy it would be to make it seem as though that were the case."

I couldn't help but gulp at what she was implying. She leaned in closer to me, her gaze unblinking.

"This game has gone on long enough. Tell me where the rest of your kind are hiding."

I stared back at May, wide-eyed. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she obviously thought otherwise. I blinked and gulped again.

"I swear I don't know anything," I said shakily.

"You lie. Very well. We are-"

Suddenly, one of the pony nurses burst into the room. She was out of breath and apparently extremely panicked.

"Madam May!" she said frantically. "Word from Captain Air Scrawl! The changelings are here, they're attacking the monument shipment!"

May froze and drew her knife away from me, putting it back in her coat and then placing her hat back on her head.

"Odd, they are usually much more subtle than this. No matter, thank you, nurse, you may go," she said aloud. "I'll be back shortly."

With that, May stood up and walked towards the door, vanishing into thin air. The nurse left as well, closing the door behind her. Silence filled the room.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I needed to get out of here. But I felt too weak to try. And with Trixie having suddenly turned on me, I had noling to help me.

"Ugh, I hate those morons."

I opened my eyes. There was someling else here.

"Oh, sorry. No manners for me, nope."

The voice definitely wasn't that of a pony. I looked around for the speaker, but there seemed to be noling else in the room.

Suddenly, a green outline formed on the ceiling. The air inside the outline shimmered, then slowly changed colors. Before I knew it, I could see a changeling, an ordinary changeling, standing on the ceiling.

The changeling silently dropped to the floor, then walked over to the side of my bed. It smiled and sat down on the floor next to me.

"Hello brother. We have some time to talk. That Watcher will be busy for a while. You know how Behemoths hate to lose to something smaller than they are."

I hissed at the changeling, who recoiled in surprise.

"Get lost. One of you already tried to kill me."

The changeling looked puzzled, then relaxed and smiled again.

"Oh, I see. You're Disconnected. That explains everything."

"Disconnected?" I asked.

"One of the king's experiments," the changeling explained. "A dozen changelings, disconnected from the Hive Mind from birth. One Elite, one Behemoth, three Skywings, two lahkendovs, and five drones."

"What?"

"Oh, right. I forgot." The changeling grinned. "My name's Nebula. What's yours?"

"Revenant."

The changeling's grin dropped. It looked down at the ground for a moment.

"I see." Nebula said softly. "Um... Where were we?"

"What do you want with me?" I asked.

"Standing orders are to integrate all disconnected changelings as soon as they complete their mission," Nebula sighed. "Do you know what your mission is?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then you're not ready to be integrated. But that doesn't mean we're going to let you stay here."

Nebula's horn lit up a bright green, and it set about undoing all the ropes that held me down.

"And they call us savages..." Nebula muttered. "Just because I ate a mare's eyeballs doesn't mean I'm not civilized."

I chose not to comment on that.

"Relax," Nebula laughed. "I had the decency to cook them first. Raw just gives me gas."

Nebula finished untying me from the bed and threw the ropes away. It smiled.

"So now I'm giving you a choice. We can go our separate ways, and meet again in the future. Or, if you want, you can come with me to the Manehattan Hive. Either way, you can still leave here."

I stared at the changeling, who grinned widely back at me. It was just going to let me go? I was slightly surprising, considering how I had interacted with Parasite. But then, changelings were despised by just about every pony had ever met. Only Trixie had accepted me to any degree, but I hadn't given her much choice in the matter.

"I want to-" I began, but Nebula cut me off with a raised hoof.

"Actually, Commander Exusia has a better idea," it said with a smile, but it looked forced. "You're staying a prisoner."

I gaped at Nebula, who just shrugged.

"Look, I'd rather not, but he's the Commander. We're just a couple of grunts. Well, you're not a grunt exactly, but the point is he outranks both of us."

"And how are you going to keep me a prisoner?" I asked, glaring at the changeling.

"Like this."

Nebula's horn lit up, and before I could react, a green bolt shot out and struck me in the head. Before I knew it, the world spun and faded to black.


End file.
